


Father Gabe

by drumrockstar21



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-09 11:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drumrockstar21/pseuds/drumrockstar21
Summary: Gabriel Agreste is a notorious workaholic, and nobody knows that better than his son Adrien. So what happens when Adrien's life finally turns into the perfect paradise? He's finally dating Ladybug (who turned out to be the AMAZING Marinette), akuma fights have never been easier, and his father is suddenly barging into his personal life!Wait, what?A.k.a The (eventual) Gabriel Redemption





	1. He Noticed Me

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder that the amazing 
> 
> http://alicetabitha.tumblr.com/
> 
> Has made fantabulous artwork for this!
> 
> THERE WILL DEFINITELY BE A PART 2...EVENTUALLY.

"Ohhh Marinette!" Chat Noir called through her rounded window. He hung from it, half inside and half out in the setting sun of Paris. 

He was drunk. 

Marinette rushed to the window. Dragging the Alley Cat™ into her room, she set him on the chaise before he promptly vomited on the pillow. 

"Adrien! That's disgusting!" She scolded in a hushed tone. "Why the hell are you drunk?! And then you run around Paris as Chat Noir? Not exactly setting the best example, mister superhero." 

Marinette scrambled to scrub the pillow while Chat made himself comfortable. Tikki giggled from her spot on the back of the chaise lounge. 

"Ooohhhhh hey Tikkiiiiiii!" Adrien said loudly, rolling onto his back. He reached up to pat her head, stopping when Marinette shushed him harshly. 

"Adrien! My parents are downstairs!" She warned in the same tone as before. 

Adrien only grunted, curling himself into a ball on her furniture. After the pillow was thoroughly washed out, Marinette threw a worn, wool blanket over him. He played with the loose edge of it before his head went limp, resting on the seat cushion. Marinette turned her head at an angle, trying to catch his eyes. It was too late though, he had already shut them and was on the verge of passing out. 

"Adrien, before you go night-night in my room, please explain why you're running around Paris drunk?" Marinette asked, concern and sarcasm both rimming her voice and placed a hand on his blanketed knee. 

Words began sliding from his mouth like jelly, most of them unintelligible and slurred. 

"Weh I wehnta my fathar an he was alre-ee drunk." He paused, turning his head to stare at the ceiling. Simply talking seemed to be sapping him of energy. "He axed me ta drinb withim an ssso I did."

Seemingly finished with his magical tale of slurred words, a magical beep rang out from his ring. Marinette's eyes widened at the knowledge he must have used his Cataclysm for the transformation to be wearing off. She suppressed a shudder, hoping he had only done minor damage to some wall, and hopefully not hurt somebody. 

Swallowing her nerves, she ran her hand over his chest as he continued to stare straight up from her chaise. 

"I-I didn't know your dad drank." She said, her wide-eyed gaze being placed past his shoulder onto the back of the couch. 

"Me neither." He replied, relatively clear of impediment. Adrien didn't seem sad necessarily so much as accepting it as fact. Marinette supposed part of that might have to do with how Chat smelled like a distillery himself. 

"Well, lets get you some water and then I'm taking you back home." Marinette said with a sense of finality.

"Nooooooooo." Chat whined. His protests went unacknowledged though as Marinette went downstairs. A few minutes later, she opened the trap door. Closing it again, a final beeping chimed and a green flash shone through her windows. 

A shirtless Adrien replaced the black cat on her couch. He immediately put a hand over his mouth. A knowing and panicked Marinette was far too slow in her dash for the trash bin. 

"Dammit Adrien." She grumbled, gathering her supplies again to clean the floor. 

"Hey, don't blame him too much." Plagg countered. "I was holding most of the side effects back for you." Plagg himself seemed a little unsteady in his flying. He not-so-gracefully plopped down next to Tikki. 

Next to her partner, Tikki giggled. "Look, Adrien's already out like a light!" 

Sure enough, Adrien's head lolled back over the arm of the sofa. His unclean mouth hung open and one vomit covered hand hung limply above the floor. 

He was anything but the graceful model he normally was. 

In the moment, Marinette was vehemently annoyed. She knew though, that an opportunity like this only came once in a lifetime. Seeing her chance, she paused in her cleaning.

_*Snap-click*_

Adrien managed to wake up the next morning, just barely though. His pounding head was increased by the sunlight pouring through his wall of windows. 

Burying his face for what felt like aching hours, he heard Plagg snicker above him. 

"Heheheh. Rough night there champ?" He teased. 

Adrien only grunted into his pillow. 

"You should probably check your phone before trying to pass out again." Plagg said, so nonchalant that Adrien had no choice but to give into curiosity. When he opened the lock screen, a single message showed on his phone. 

Sitting up, Adrien noticed a red drink on his desk next to where his phone had been. He picked out the celery stick before sipping the concoction. He was already smiling to himself as he looked closer at the message. 

_( <3 Mari <3)  
Slide for more_

And a picture that his blurry eyes couldn't make out. 

He opened it up to see. It was himself, surrounded by the pink of Marinette's room. Both a black and a red dot sat on the seat back behind him. 

His own position was the epitome of grace. Hair hanging upside down, swampy-brown-green liquid chunks on both his hands and mouth, and legs sprawled out over the chaise, he was all the dream Marinette could ever have wanted. 

As if. 

He facepalmed himself, dropping the phone into his lap and quickly noticing just how clean his hands were compared to the picture. Marinette went and cleaned him up, vomit and all. He smiled into his palm, thinking of how much he didn't deserve her kindness, but relishing in it regardless. 

The picture was...incriminating, to say the least. The fact that he was drunk only being one piece of the puzzle, he knew normal Adrien wouldn't have gotten into her room like that. He vaguely remembered making Plagg transform mid-shower. 

That meant...

Oh no. 

He checked the picture again, and just as he suspected, the navy blue blanket was sliding down his torso. Adrien's chest was exposed. 

Which meant the rest of him had been exposed under that blanket. 

This time Adrien planted his face firmly into the mattress, taking mind not to spill his drink. It took Plagg laughing hysterically at the photo, minutes later, to make him finally pick his head up. 

He quickly sent a text to Marinette, 

A: _sorry_

A: _for everything._

Such as his life, the fact he existed anymore, and the fact his face hadn't burst into flames and killed him from embarrassment yet. 

M: _nbd, you would've done the same for me. Now get to class, you're 45 minutes late._

Adrien knew that it didn't change the fact that he had fully embarrassed himself, but the fact Marinette was being relaxed (at least over text) comforted him enough to get up and around. 

He was walking out to meet his driver when he heard a buzzsaw from his father's study. Daring to see what could've made a noise like that, he cracked the already ajar door open. 

To see his father face first on the floor was stunning, to say the least. He was snoring, laying behind the podium-like desk. A smell permeated the room, it was distinctly alcoholic but there was also the smell of something more...sour. Whatever caused that part of the smell must have been hidden in the study somewhere. 

The remnants of their revelry were scattered around the room. Quite a few bottles sat around the painting of his mother, the rest were lying around various parts of the floor. 

Different liquors, some harder than others, were on their sides, contents either half drank or spilled out on the floor. Two margarita glasses sat at his father's desk, neither of them used for the intended drink and still half full of a God-only-knew-what concoction. 

A tiny wine bottle sat, hidden from his father's point of view. The glass had scratch marks, and Adrien's still half-drunk mind couldn't place together the two pieces, even though he knew something was off about it. 

Next to his father, a wine glass and a bottle of merlot, the glass that had started it all. 

Adrien smiled at the unconscious man, pulling out his phone. 

*Snap-click* __

_He sent it immediately and promptly deleted it, knowing his father would not appreciate a photo like that being on his son's phone. He sent a text along after it._

__(Father -_-)_ _

_A: That was fun ;3_

He sent another text right after. 

A: _Yes, I deleted the photo._

Satisfied when he heard his father's cellphone chime a second time, he finally left that day. He was groggy, riddled with head pain, and a full hour late for school. 

He smiled to himself the entire car ride to school.


	2. He Likes Her

"Is a tie too much?" Adrien asked to what seemed like the empty room. 

Plagg popped out from under the couch. A string of yarn trailed behind him, hanging off his foot. 

"How should I know? Does it look like I wear clothes?" He replied in his wonderfully nasal voice. 

Adrien only shot him a deadpan look before turning to mutter at his clothes again. Seeing the kid all riled up made him roll his eyes. It was absolutely ridiculous how humans overreacted. Who cares what he's wearing? Marinette certainly wouldn't, even Plagg knew that. 

Adrien was buttoning up his black shirt when Nathalie walked into the room. Plagg was on the arm of the couch, and so already hidden from view. Without a greeting, she began. 

"Adrien, your schedule for Saturday morning will be a photoshoot for Claire de Saint Paul schools. You will be modeling their uniforms. After that you have a two hour lunch break-"

Adrien heard nothing after the two hour lunch break was mentioned. Never before had he been given the opportunity to have not just one, but TWO hours for whatever he pleased between appointments. Feeling as melodramatic as his inner voice sounded, he looked at Nathalie and spoke. 

"Nathalie, do you think this is too much black?" He said gesturing to his own form. "If there is any lint within a mile it'll be on me, won't it?" He stated more than asked. 

Nathalie scanned him robotically. After a moment deliberation she shrugged a reply, "Are you going to be around cats or something?"

Adrien nearly choked on air, and he caught Nathalie smile to herself. She may have thought that it was simply a clever response, and his reaction was justified because of how the behavior contradicted her highly professional appearance. 

However Adrien was shocked for a different reason, it had been just a little too close for comfort and a little too unexpected. 

Turning on her heel, she stood still and spoke over her shoulder, continuing to smirk. 

"Perhaps change the shirt, I hear Chat Noir green is in this year. What with all the attention those two have gotten, if a model such as yourself wore outfits complementing theirs, it might just start a trend. Your father might like to see the change of pace as well."

And as Adrien tried very hard to control his breathing, Nathalie stepped out of the room, heels clacking under her feet. 

Once Adrien regained his composure, he turned to his dress shirts. Eyes immediately fell onto a button up, same as the one he wore now. 

Except lime green. 

"Wait, my father?" He said to himself.

Plagg was quick to respond, "Well yeah Adrien, didn't you hear that lady say he was going to 'accompany you two' tonight?" 

Adrien blanched at the idea. His father, world renowned fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, was going to chaperone a date?

"T-that's ridiculous! Marinette and I have been dating for like, a few weeks now. Why would he feel the need to do this tonight?" 

_'Especially since it's the first time I'm taking her out to dinner!'_ He said, inwardly growing frustrated. 

Plagg only gave a noncommittal grunt. Such a helpful god of destruction he was. 

_'Actually, it's probably better if the god of destruction has nothing to do with my love life.'_

A glance at his phone told him he had but minutes before he had to pick up Marinette. Without time for more thoughts, Adrien quickly changed. Hopping into the car, Gabriel was revealed in the seat across from his, and Nathalie stepped into the seat next to his father silently. 

Not paying mind to the exasperated sigh his son gave off (or simply not hearing it at all), he looked up from his tablet and spoke, "So, where are we going, Adrien?"

Adrien didn't know why his father was acting this way, nor did he want to. He had a feeling the answer to that would make for an awkward car trip. 

"O-well-I mean it's just a um, a dinner date..." Adrien trailed off, rubbing his neck. 

His father's eyes rose in what was supposed to be surprise. It was painfully obvious to Adrien that he was faking his lack of knowledge. 

"A date?" His father asked simply. Somehow the lack of words only added to the questions he asked. It was like his father was inquiring vaguely enough that he expected the entire situation to be splayed out before him. 

Adrien naively obliged to him. 

"W-well yes. Marinette and I have been dating for a few weeks now. We haven't gone out to dinner yet, and I didn't know you'd be coming with us..." Adrien knew he was rambling now but couldn't make his lips close. It was like the words themselves wanted to come out. "...so I'm not sure what you were thinking but I mean, it's just a simple dinner date."

Did he say that already??

Either way, his father quietly nodded, he looked out the window in pensive thought for just a moment. The suspense was killing Adrien, he just knew a heart attack was fast approaching. 

"Is it serious with this girl?"

A question which, to Adrien, seemed out of the blue. His father had never inquired this far into his personal life. The only other people who had acted like this towards him were Nino and Alya when they went into full on "parental figure" mode. He had no idea what to expect from his father. 

His eyes immediately shot to the car floor. After enduring a small pothole that bounced the three of them in the back seat, Adrien answered him. The unclearness of the situation forcing him to be honest. 

"Yes, it is serious between us."

His father's silence worried Adrien, and he looked up. The face he saw was one of appraisal. His father seemed to be calculating; eyes narrowed, lips puckered in thought, and fingers rolled out a steady tapping rhythm on the man's lap. 

A few seconds of eternity later, the car came to a halt in front of a familiar bakery. Decorations adorned the store front, strings of triangle pendants hanging from the awnings. Red, white, and blue, for Bastille day on that following Wednesday. 

Marinette stepped out of the bakery with determined movements. If someone asked her, "Were you watching for Adrien's car, nose pressed up against the glass?" She would respond with a grin and a single nod of her head. 

"Well, aren't you going to open the door Adrien?" His father prompted. Ever the gentleman, Adrien stopped his gawking.

"O-oh! Right!" He said, clambering out of the car door to let her in. 

"Thank you Adrien." She said, smiling. He gave an anxious smile back and shut the door behind her. He quickly made his way to the other side of the car and began to step in.

An exhale of relaxation came from his lungs. It was sharply taken back in at what he saw now. Marinette sat frozen across from Gabriel Agreste. 

Without a second's hesitation, Gabriel reached out and held up her hand. 

"I don't believe we've been formally introduced. As you are likely aware, I am Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's father." he suavely told her. In sharp contrast to his cool demeanor, Marinette seemed to be breaking at the seams. 

"M-m-Marinette my name is." 

Adrien decided it was clearly the shock from her role model showing up unannounced on her date with said role model's son. His thoughts were brought to a screeching halt as Gabriel nodded politely. 

"Yes, I've heard all about you Miss Dupain-Cheng."

From who?! Adrien barely spoke to his father, let alone spoke about Marinette to him!

His father continued, "It is certainly a pleasure to not only meet such a talented young designer, but also the girl who seems to have captured my son's attention."

If Marinette had been nervous before, she was mere shambles now. Before Adrien could process the movement, Gabriel brought Marinette's hand up to his face. He gave it a chaste kiss, similar to the ones he himself would give Marinette/Ladybug. 

Adrien felt his mouth drop open just as much as he saw his girlfriend's do the same. 

Gabriel returned to his straightened posture and looked at Adrien. A nearly imperceptible eyebrow raise prompted him to actually sit in the car. 

Driving towards the restaurant, Gabriel continued to speak to Marinette. Who for the first portion, could only give out single words and grunts. Her stuttering was forgotten for excitement when he began asking of her own designs. 

"If you'd like, I wouldn't mind taking a look at your designs someday." And Marinette's jaw once again hit the floor.

"That would be... well, incredible! I-I mean if you really want to that is, they're nothing like-"

"Nonsense," Gabriel interrupted, causing Marinette to freeze in place. "In fact, it would be rather relaxing to see a new, younger style. As of late, I've only seen designs that look like they belong in ‘90s America."

Both teens gave off genuine chuckles. As Nathalie gave Marinette details of how to contact her with the designs, Adrien's mind rapidly caught up to the fact that his father was being charming. It was a side so unseen from him. The only other times he had caught a glimpse were at social events. Those were the times that Adrien Agreste was expected to be the well behaved young man he was groomed to be. Adrien's inward grimace at the memory flickered out when he realized his father likely felt the same. Forcing himself to be polite and charming in front of colleagues and press, Gabriel was in the same boat as Adrien. 

The young man sat back in his seat at the realization. He took a second glance at the two beside him. Suddenly another realization struck him. 

His father was actually enjoying this. 

In contrast to the restrained smiles and forced hand shakes of a social party, minute details stuck out to Adrien. Each of them seemed insignificant, however putting them together told his mind that these smiles and laughs were genuine. 

A grin snuck its way onto Adrien's face and he placed his elbows on his knees. Hunched over so that he could place his chin in the two modelesque hands, he listened to the designers speak about their designer things. 

_'Some things aren't meant to be understood by models I suppose.'_ he thought. 

His father's stern voice jolted him. 

"Adrien, sit up straight. Your posture is horrific!" He chided. 

"Yes sir." Adrien obeyed, grin still gracing his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter has fantastic artwork, as done by the talented alicetabitha!
> 
> http://alicetabitha.tumblr.com/post/169076042862/this-was-done-for-the-amazing-story-father-gabe


	3. He Steals Her

Le Grand París, arguably the finest restaurant in all of France. An elite social standing was required to even think about making reservations. Anyone who wasn't in, was out. 

And the Agrestes were as in as "in" could get. 

Marinette shifted in her seat, the stunning dress splayed over the luxurious chair. It was one of Marinette's few pieces she hadn't made herself. A modest, cherry red sleeveless dress with matching sequins covering the front of it up to her neckline. The lower half was a layered, veil-like cloth, similar to that of a ballerina’s dress. Adrien knew next to nothing about women's clothes, but he knew that what she was wearing certainly wasn't cheap. Her shoes matched the dress, and the only way Adrien could describe them was "kind of like tap shoes." Finally to "wrap up" the outfit, Marinette forewent her usual pigtails. Instead, a bow held in place a ponytail, which only tied back the middle section of her hair. The rest of it was straightened, reaching just past her shoulders. The only feature unchanged in her raven locks would be her bangs.

It wasn't long before they were seated and ordered. Marinette got a sirloin (the least expensive meal on the menu, of course.) Adrien chose the salmon, along with a piece of Camembert (again, obvious reasons.) Finally, Gabriel ordered a very complex plate. It had grilled vegetables, and some sort of fish that Adrien didn't recognize. 

It seemed designer and chef were both careers he could scratch off his list. 

Once the waiter walked away, Gabriel immediately began asking about her dress. He even noticed that she had made her own changes to it. 

And blah, blah blah, blah blah. 

It's not that Adrien didn't take an interest, but he quickly was lost in their phrases and words that only designers seemed to understand. It was hard to add in on a conversation when it might as well have been a foreign language. 

His father was hijacking this date. 

Miffed, Adrien abruptly stood from their table. "I'm going to the restroom," he said, muttering his announcement. 

"Yes yes, that's fine Adrien. Now Marinette, if you keep the colors here..."

Adrien tuned out the conversation as he speed walked towards the bathroom. If it hadn't been for an elderly attendant in the restroom, he wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to fling the door open. 

Placing his hands on the vanity, he looked at his reflection. Adrien took note of the bags under his eyes. Too many late nights for various reasons. Between patrols and midnight visits, he had been spending nearly all of his free time with Marinette. Maybe one dinner wasn't too bad. 

"But where does he get off jumping into my love life like this?" He said, turning toward the attendant. The balding man had a bushy grey mustache, wrinkles lined his forehead and rounded his mouth. Wrinkles that only came from years of laughing and smiling. The face sat still though now, as the man stood unflinching under Adrien's questioning. 

"Well, I mean I guess it's good that they're getting along," Adrien supplied. He turned attention back to his mirror and took water from the tap. The boy ran it over his face and through his hair. The reflection tested a smile before turning away. 

"Thanks for listening." Adrien said, slipping the man a few euros, which he readily took. The expression of his face remained rock solid, save for a polite nod. 

There was a distinct lack of talking as Adrien walked back to the table. His food sat ready for him to dine. The two accompanying him sat eating silently and there was a thick air of awkwardness around them. Marinette would steal glances at her boyfriend while Gabriel continued to eat in nonchalance. 

What the hell?

The three of them spoke only enough to be polite from there on. 

"That was a splendid meal."

"Yes it was very good."

Until the car once again pulled up to the colored pendants of the Dupain-Cheng boulangerie. 

"Thank you for letting me ride with Adrien and yourself M. Agreste."

"Yes of course. I do hope to see you again soon Mlle. Dupain-Cheng."

Adrien walked her to the store front. When Marinette turned to face him, he immediately began questioning. 

"So what exactly happened back at the restaurant?"

Blue eyes shot to the pavement. Marinette watched her shoe try and dig a hole through the concrete as she nervously spun her foot back and forth. "W-what do you mean?"

She smiled hopefully up at him. His unamused face caused her to give up almost a second later. "Well, your father he...as soon as you left he asked if you and I were serious."

"Oh no." Adrien groaned. 

Marinette continued on. "I told him yes. And then he asked...if you and I...umm..."

Adrien was exasperated. "I'm so sorry Marinette. What exactly did he say?"

A steadying breath. In, and out. 

"He said, 'Marinette, if you and my son are having intimate relations, I'd like to know you are both being cautious.' And I mean, at that point I kinda freaked out and barely stuttered out that we weren't." 

Marinette's face was now a bright red at the very memory. The pinkness passed like a disease to Adrien's face. The symptoms grew until he was feeling far too warm, the heat having nothing to do with summer. 

With an apology, a promise to come back that night, and a small kiss, Marinette went into her home and Adrien stepped into the car. 

Without looking up from his tablet, Adrien's father spoke to his embarrassed son. 

"I certainly do like her. I think she's a fine young woman for you, Adrien."

"Faaatherrr. You're being so awkward," Adrien whined back. 

Gabriel looked up to consider his son for a moment. He quirked his lip pensively. He then shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his tablet, working easily, as though he had found the answer to an unasked question. 

_'Is this how being a father feels?'_


	4. He Trusts Me?

With the knowledge his father hid his possessions behind the painting of mom came a few other nuances. Tiny pinpricks in his head that before had gone unnoticed. 

For example, when his father was around the mansion, there were times he would be impossible to find. Before, Adrien had assumed he was working on designs and shows. Now though, he realized his father would simply fall off the face of the earth on occasion. 

There was also the matter of his assistant. Not Nathalie, but some other woman he didn't quite know. He had seen her before, giving his father designs or schedules. Normally, she would hand them off and leave again. These days though, she seemed to linger around the mansion. 

_'Helping Father with his work, obviously!'_ His brain nervously supplied. 

_'Affair, obviously.'_ His unconscious mind supplied with confidence. 

With a full day passing since the chaperoned dinner date, and the embarrassment well behind him, (thanks to Marinette's reassurances) it was about time to ask his father something. 

Something big. 

Gabriel was in the dining room, working off of his tablet. From the motions, it looked as though he were designing something. A smile lightened his features and his focus was divided between the device and...something else?

A feminine voice echoed through the halls and Adrien turned the corner. He saw the new assistant sitting in the seat next to Gabriel, who was at the head of the table. Her sunny-blonde hair curled slightly around her shoulders. It extended slightly further, dangling above the table, where her elbows rested. Behind the shining locks was a professional looking white blouse and charcoal grey pencil skirt. She was smiling, as Gabriel was, and holding back a giggle. 

"Okayokayokay," she said, gesturing excitedly. "How about aaaaaaan, H?"

She gave a squeal of excitement as he wrote down two letter H's in the blank spaces, one at the beginning and one at the end. Adrien glanced at the iPad to see a game. He refocused on walking towards his father, and asking-

Wait...A GAME?!

He looked again to see it was hangman. Already the figure had a head, body and one arm. 

H _ _ _ _ _ _ H occupied the space under the stick-figure gallows. 

Clearing his throat, he quite accidentally gathered his father's attention. He decided to roll with it rather than try to backtrack. 

"F-father," he stuttered. The whole situation seemed odd as could be. Adrien's awkward approach only heightened the strange vibe in the room. 

"Yes, Adrien?" Gabriel responded, cool and collected, as he looked at him. Sitting in the seat left their eyes at the same height. Gabriel's head though was tilted back slightly. It felt like he was still reaching up to have the high ground. 

Adrien cleared his throat again as dust from the mansion settled around him. He could feel each piece fall on him in that moment. 

He strong-armed his voice into a submission hold. The first few syllables were a struggle, words beginning to pour out of his mind as he caught momentum. 

"Marinette, her birthday is Tuesday."

"Oh! Right before Bastille Day? That's so cool!" Interrupted the blonde woman. She was so genuinely excited that Adrien couldn't help but smile back at her. 

Adrien's father spoke before anything else could be said between the two. "Ahh, my apologies. Adrien this is Anne Blanchet. Anne, you are familiar with my son correct?"

"Only through reputation." She acknowledged, still smiling at the two men. The younger perked his head up when she moved to address him from across the table. 

"Adrien, it is very nice to meet you and I will probably be seeing more of you soon!" She said gleefully. 

"Why is that?" 

"Well, your father and I are-"

"Working together on a project." Gabriel finished, cutting her off. He turned his head towards her. "A secret project." He said, stressing the " _secret._ "

"O-oh right!" She backtracked. Nervously she tucked a loose hair behind her ear. "Well, either way. I should be around the mansion pretty often! So don't be afraid to say hi, I don't bite promise."

Adrien smiled politely and turned back towards his father. 

_'This is getting too weird.'_

His father did likewise, now that introductions were out of the way. 

"Well, Father. As I was saying, I was hoping that on Wednesday we could have a party here at the mansion. Sort of a Marinette and Bastille Day combo party?" 

Adrien braced himself, he knew it was a no. Why had he even bothered asking? The moment he thought to give Marinette a birthday party, he had been so excited that he hadn't thought of his father's rejection. It was just a spur of the moment decision, one Chat Noir was prone to and Adrien barely resorted to. 

As his father gave a sideways glance to Anne, Adrien could feel the unwanted word roll out of his mouth. 

"Well, I suppose. Under some conditions."

Adrien couldn't believe it. His eyes couldn't stop blinking. Was that normal? It'd better be because he couldn't stop them. Finally he brought his head up and saw the blonde girl barely being able to contain herself. Like at any moment she might just burst from her seat and tackle one of them in a hug. 

He wasn't sure which one of them honestly. 

"First, none of your friends are permitted to bring drugs or alcohol." A glance towards Anne. "Those will be provided."

WAS THAT A WINK?!

Despite Anne's giggling fit, Gabriel continued. "Anyone caught in areas they shouldn't be, or having intimate relations will be immediately escorted off the property. And lastly, I will be providing Marinette's attire for the evening. I ensure you she will protest. This point is non-negotiable. Are we clear, Adrien?"

A stunned Adrien nodded dumbly. His father was joking, flirting, and being all around NICE. Adrien's whole world was turning upside down. Next thing, Hawkmoth would be turning himself in!

Adrien's excitement began to break though as he trudged to his room. Within seconds, he was gleefully running towards the bedroom. 

"Now then, what letter would you like to guess next, my dear?"


	5. He Confuses Me

Monday came and Adrien excitedly told absolutely everyone he saw about the party. Marinette (as Gabriel had predicted) argued that she could make her own dress. The combined forces of only having two days, and his Father's insistence of providing a dress, finally wore her down. By lunch, she conceded defeat and gave Adrien a small card with her measurements (under the condition he didn't look at them). The fact that Gabriel Agreste was providing a dress for her apparently didn't strike until late in the afternoon. Adrien had to cover his ears when he heard the excited shriek. 

Tuesday he excitedly gave Marinette a birthday present at 12:01 in the morning. An unexpectedly high quality Chat Noir costume, matching his Ladybug one. Then again, it was Adrien Agreste. She had a feeling that he spent more time than he admitted to, having to hunt down the outfits. 

"Offfff course." Marinette smiled amusedly. 

The rest of Tuesday would have been him continually seeing Marinette (excitedly of course) and nothing else all through the school day. That is, if it wasn't for him overhearing Anne and his father planning the party. From what he caught, they were pulling out all the stops on this one. It had his mind daydreaming all day of what a professional man as his father might consider a "party." Not to mention there was a pretty nasty akuma attack in the afternoon. It nearly took his head off with a cleaver!

In sharp contrast to the jam-packed Tuesday, Wednesday came and he almost didn't realize it when he woke up. Walking down the stairs towards the front door, he saw a case of champagne being wheeled from the kitchen towards the ballroom. 

And another, then another. 

Distracted by the spectacle that was alcohol, Adrien ran straight into his father's chest. He stood between him and the door. A statue, placed centrally in the expensive foyer. 

Adrien was the first to speak, "Father, what's all that champagne for?"

The look he received back could only be described as incredulous. 

"Well for your party of course! Did I not say I would be providing?" He asked, as though it were to be the most expected concept in the world. As though Gabriel Agreste giving his son alcohol were normal circums--

Wait. 

In response to his unvoiced question, Gabriel spoke. "Adrien, I don't mind if you have alcohol, you are of legal age after all. Marinette turned 18 yesterday correct?"

Gabriel looked down at his son, with the critical eye of a man inspecting a jewel. "Speaking of which...did you get her a present?"

_'When did this turn to me?!'_

Being fairly surprised at his father's inquiry, Adrien caught his breath again before speaking. "Y-yes I did."

An expectant beat of silence.

"And?"

Adrien's eyes darted around the room, searching for somewhere to escape to. With no such luck, he supplied the bare minimum. 

"She liked it."

This was by far the most awkward conversation Adrien had ever had with his father. One of them was pressing for information as the other was doing everything he could to withhold it. He wasn't even sure why, but telling his father about his love life just felt...unbearable. Not to mention the utter "dorkiness" of the gift, as Marinette had lovingly called it. 

But what else could he do?

"Well what did you get her?" Gabriel said, seeming to grow impatient. His father by no means would throw a tantrum, but the way he threw back his head and looked down on Adrien told him that his father would tolerate no more of this game. 

Piercing steps rang throughout the foyer. Adrien turned thankfully towards the distraction. Anne stepped quickly down the stairs and Adrien only had a second to realize who it was...

_'Where had she been at?!'_

...before he was tackled into a tight hug. 

"Gooooooood MORNING Adrien!" She burst out excitedly. "Tell me, have you had breakfast yet?"

"Yes, he had an egg, toast, and a glass of orange juice." Gabriel supplied for him. 

Anne judged him with an annoyed pout of her lips, peeking over Adrien's shoulder. After a second of this, she brought her head back to where it had been in front of Adrien's. 

"Well we need to get you some real breakfast dearie."

_'Dearie?'_

She began listing off possible options, pulling him towards the dining room. Adrien glanced back at his father to see the man looking rather disgruntled. He scowled at the woman beside Adrien before straightening his posture again and walking towards the study. 

In a conspiratorial voice, Anne leaned down and whispered in his ear. 

"I saw the Chat Noir costume, I figured you could use the save from your dad." She stated with a wink. Quickly, she tacked on, "Kinky." With a giggle, the woman raced off in her secretary's blouse and skirt and into the kitchen to get God-knows-what for breakfast. 

"W-wait it isn't like that!" He yelled to her retreating figure. It was pointless though, even if she had heard him. It was clear what kind of idea she had in her mind about the pair, and it was either that or reveal who they really were. Anything in between would just seem like a poor cover up. 

_'What is my life these days?'_

When the food came out, Anne sat down next to him and chatted. She positively gushed over necklace his father had gotten her. It was a small white rose pendant hanging on a thin gold chain. Adrien had to admit, with a handful of salt, that his father was good at picking gifts out, it was a beautiful accessory. 

_'I wonder if he had Nathalie steal that for him too.'_ he reminisced bitterly. 

After a hearty breakfast of eggs and croissants, Adrien arrived at school 30 minutes late. 

"And why are we late today Mr. Agreste? Another late night?" Ms. Mendleiv asked snarkily when Adrien came into class. 

Appropriately ashamed, Adrien arrived in his bench seat next to Nino without a word. His phone buzzed a moment later. 

_( <3 Mari <3)_

_Well Mr. Agreste? Why were we late today ;)_

Adrien let the smirk slide across his face, typing out his response. His smile wasn't born from any real laughter. The simplicity that was Marinette's sass began shining into his day, like the sun pokes through the clouds. 

_A: My father's new assistant forced me to eat breakfast._

_A: Like, a LOT of breakfast._

_M: THANK GOD. Does that mean no more model diet? I nearly had a heart attack when you passed out on patrol that one time._

_A: Dunno, maybe? She seems to have a lot of...influence on him._

_M: ???_

_A: I'll explain later._

Adrien stowed his phone away, knowing Marinette would do the same, as their instructor turned back towards the class. She asked about a simple formula Adrien had memorized in homeschool, ages beforehand. The perfect time to daydream. 

Or to let one's mind create ridiculous fantasies about why Anne had so much sway with his father. 

_'It's good! Really it is! My father is...getting out there! It's certainly not that he doesn't love mom still, but he's decided it's time to move on. I can respect that...I think.'_

Adrien stared ahead at the desk blankly. 

_'...at least she's nice.'_


	6. He Dresses Me

Plagg drifted above Adrien's head without listening. The kid was getting dressed and had asked...something. 

"Oh yeeeaaah," he drawled out, "that looks fine kid!" 

Adrien grimaced at his reflection. A shining purple tie hung undone around his neck. "I don't know Plagg, are you sure? It doesn't look quite-"

"Of course I'm sure! You said she was wearing purple, yeah? That is purple...isn't it?" Plagg questioned, squinting at the reflection. 

Adrien contemplated for a moment more before answering. "Mmmm, yeah I guess you're right. And how do you not know what purple looks like? You're what, forever old?”

Plagg easily replied, “I don't concern myself with trivial things like _color_. After all, I've never seen a purple cheese.”

As Adrien began to tie the lavender purple cloth around his collar, a knock broke into the quiet room. Adrien had to trust that Plagg would hide himself well, as he didn't have time to check.

"Adrien?" The knocker said, stepping into the room and quickly revealing their identity as his father. 

Adrien raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment, before thinking better of it. He knew his father would prefer a verbal response. 

"Yes, Father?"

Silently, Gabriel stalked across the room. When he came within a foot of him, lasers began to shoot from his eyes. They were directed squarely on the light purple accessory. 

In his sudden worry, Adrien dropped his hands from the tie and took a step backwards. It seemed as though his father was seething above him. Braced, he readied himself for...well it wasn't clear what, but it wasn't looking good. His father began speaking quickly, in a professionally angry tone. 

"Adrien! Did you even read the text I sent of Marinette's dress? I told you that she was wearing plum purple!"

Adrien shrunk under the scrutiny. It was less out of fear and more from disbelief of what was happening. His father began furiously searching through the closet, all because Adrien apparently picked the wrong tie. 

Adrien dared to speak, voicing Plagg's previous statement. "Well, yeah. Isn't that purple."

Gabriel froze. Jaw locked, he slowly turned towards his son. Adrien felt a shudder run through him, this time out of real fear. 

" _Lavender_ is not _plum._ " His father spat out. It was another moment of silent scolding before Gabriel pulled out the _correct_ tie. A much darker color than Adrien had been anticipating, his hands scurried to undo the half made up accessory. Before he could take the cloth from his father, the man had begun tucking it under his white collar. 

"I'll be sure to have Nathalie give you a proper rundown on colors and shades, since it seems just modeling alone has failed you on that front." His father spoke, less scolding and calmer than before. It looked like the anger of the initial mistake had passed and now Gabriel was cleaning up the pieces. 

Within seconds, Adrien's tie was complete. His father continued to delicately straighten his clothing up before a chime ran throughout the mansion. 

"Well Adrien," his father said primly, "I suppose that would be our first guest. Shall we go downstairs to meet her?"

Despite wondering who could be arriving this early, Adrien matched the small yet warm smile his father was sharing with him. He followed Gabriel to the door. Just as he was leaving his room, he looked back to see Plagg hanging over the back of the couch. Adrien took a step backwards to pick him up, but hesitated. He knew his father would question why he went back. Supposing he didn't have time to fight off any suspicions, he shrugged so as to say, "It can't be helped!" at the kwami before jogging quickly to match pace with his father again. 

Both of the Agrestes walked formally down the staircase as Marinette was let in by Nathalie. Gabriel quickly greeted her. 

"Ahh, Marinette." He said fondly, "it's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Mr. Agreste." She replied, as he took her hand. Once again, he raised it to his lips. While Marinette still looked like a deer in the headlights, she had clearly grown more accustomed to the greeting than the first time. Gabriel's attention quickly shifted over to Anne. 

"Anne, if you would help Marinette into her dress."

The blonde assistant nodded back professionally. When she began to lead Marinette away, Adrien heard her say excitedly, "You must be Marinette! I am absolutely _thrilled_ to meet you."

At first he watched Marinette shy away from the woman's gushing. Always quick to adapt though, she gave a cheerful greeting back to Anne, before turning the corner. 

"I do hope Marinette likes Anne. After all, beginning tomorrow, she will be living in the mansion."

Adrien stiffened in place. His brow furrowed in confusion, and like a broken wind up toy, his head turned joltingly.

"Wait, did you mean Anne or...Marinette?" He asked, toeing the line between horror and elation. 

Gabriel smirked, still looking at the corner which the girls had disappeared behind. He turned to Adrien, still smirking slyly. 

"Well, why not both of them?"

Adrien would have laughed if his mind was in one piece.


	7. He Hosts Us

"Oh wow!" Alix exclaimed as she burst forward into the ballroom. The slim pink dress she wore matched her bubblegum hair. She spun on her heel to face her friends. "This is awesome! And we have the whole night here right?!" 

"Absolutely, we'll have dancing and games once more people get here." Adrien explained cheerfully. Playing the host was taking to him like a suckerfish, it would seem. Alix, Rose and Juleka admired the neon-glowing party decorations in the otherwise dimly lit room. Adrien was quickly drawn back towards the door, welcoming in Kim, Max, Ivan and Mylene. 

Odd, Marinette was still changing? He had seen the dress himself, surely it couldn't be taking this long to put on. 

Chloe, Sabrina, and two other seemingly upper society girls arrived next. Similar to her everyday clothes, the dress Chloe wore was yellow, stretching down to her matching heels. Sabrina was wearing a light purple dress. 

Lavender.

Inwardly, he sighed. It actually would have been awkward to match with someone whom he wasn't with, and yet not match with Marinette. 

15 - love, Gabriel. 

Finally, Nino and Alya rolled in through the gates. Those two rounded out the entire class, plus a few of their out-of-school friends. 

Still no Marinette though. 

Adrien was a bit anxious now. Despite not knowing what could've happened, he supposed with the two of them being magical superheroes, anything _could_ have happened. 

A lone spotlight flicked onto the stage, protruding into his thoughts. There, Gabriel Agreste stood in front of the DJ equipment, sharply dressed in his personal, custom made formal suit. It was a fully white suit, the only accenting color being the solid lavender, cravat tie. He smiled politely and spoke with confidence. 

"Adrien and I welcome you to our home. Please remember that this is a home, and you are expected to treat it as such. Inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. With that being said, I do hope you all enjoy the evening." He paused to scan over the room. "Finally, let us all congratulate Marinette on reaching her 18th birthday." 

Just as he finished speaking, the main doorway of the ballroom opened up. Inch by inch, a luxurious, dark purple dress came into view. The skirt had an appearance of two layers, a thick black hemline lined the bottom of the two cloth pieces. Marinette's right leg was all but hidden away, the left exposed up to her mid-thigh. As Adrien's gaze climbed up the formal outfit, he noticed a distinct pattern, despite being fairly disguised into the dress. 

Around Marinette's waist was a hidden belt, stitched in as a part of the dress. It was a design almost like foliage, with tiny purple butterflies mixed in, the same shade of leaves and vines. It would be completely hidden into the dress, if not for the way it caught the light, and Adrien had nearly missed it. Something tugged on the back of his mind, and he began to squint at the fashion piece. 

Until Marinette herself came into his eyesight. 

A modest neckline that brought itself up to the collar, neglecting sleeves and yet wrapping itself around her neck, as a plum purple choker. Adrien couldn't care less. There was an absolutely stunning face that sat just above the dress, and the outfit only served to showcase its beauty. 

A moment of oohs and ahhs filled the room, until one of the girls shouted to break the scene. 

"YEeeeaaahh Marinette! You go girl!"

It released the shockwave of cheers and whistles that, if Adrien didn't know better, seemed to vibrate the room. 

Gabriel made his way off the stage, his departure hidden by the ruckus, the DJ stepped up to the booth. It was probably good that the DJ didn't hear Nino's self-contained grumbles, or at least the boy likely thought they were quiet, Adrien and Alya heard them clear as crystal. They both held back their laughter, a few chuckles slipping out. Without a word, the hired DJ began playing a remix of Plage d'Or. The students quickly took to dancing, most with groups or partners. 

"Shall we, Mr. Agreste?"

The trivial scene on the stage was dropped from Adrien's mind like a burning hot, broken lava lamp. Adrien whipped around at a speed that would've broken the neck of a normal human. 

_When did she get this close?!_

Adrien mentally forced his body to move. He refused to let his nerves ruin a night with his friends. His friends and his, amazing, beautiful, extremely close, fantastic smelling-

Adrien shook his head in order to rid the haze that threatened to paralyze his limbs. When he spoke, it was with as much charisma and bravado he could muster in front of his lovely Lady. 

"Y-you want to dance? With me?!"

Behind Marinette's hand, Adrien heard a giggle slip through. With a smile playing across her lips, she grabbed his wrist and led him to the dance floor. 

Adrien couldn't remember a time he'd had this much fun. 

The two of them danced, along with their friends, for hours. Adrien even taught her how to waltz. Admittedly, Chat had been showing Ladybug the same thing, so it wasn't exactly her first time, but nonetheless he was very impressed with her. He wasn't the only one who was impressed. Adrien was walking to their table, champagne flutes in hand, when he saw Alya get into Marinette's face. 

"Marinette! When did you learn how to freaking _waltz_? The girl with two left feet suddenly showed me up on the dance floor!" Alya exclaimed loudly. Her own amusement was obvious though, in the way she shook her head good-naturedly. 

Marinette just shrugged, unfazed by her friend's outburst. "I had a good teacher, I suppose."

Alya's eyes darted between Marinette and Adrien. As he set down the glass for his date, a grin that could rival Chat Noir's spread over her face. 

"Oooooohhh I seeeeee, and was there anything _else_ that he taught you?" she hinted, wiggling her eyebrows. 

Marinette's eyebrow chose to raise, as she struggled to decipher the euphemism. Nino cut in with a cough faker than a Rolex off the street, " _Ahehem_ , so Adrien! How are you liking your first actual par-"

_SLAM_

Every head turned towards the doorway, which now was cracked. The wood doors splintered in places, the two epicenters mainly, which were partly blocked out by two feminine hands. Uptempo music, which had been playing, came to an abrupt stop. 

A crack of thunder caused the whole room to jump, coming from outside and so loud it could be heard clearly in this central room of the mansion. For the first time, Adrien realized a storm was raging outside. Odd, the news stations had all predicted clear skies. 

Without warning, the strange woman straightened her posture casually. The table closest to the door was startled just by the simple motion. One of Chloe's female friends even let slip an embarrassing yelp. 

Adrien took a moment to take in her appearance. Her hair, large, pulled up, and blonde, stood almost half a meter from her scalp. Her dress, large and pure white, was reminiscent of a time long past. A classical and more "romantic" age. An age that, if literary class had taught him right, was characterized by dreamers. One piece of the ensemble stood out though. 

She was wearing a large masque, one befitting of Carnevale. It was white, with gold trimmings that wove their way throughout the accessory. Upon further study, the theatrical bows that wove around the back of the outfit seemed costume like as well. 

This strange woman seemed epically nonchalant about smashing doors open. Here not even a minute ago, she had literally been putting craters into wood from her _fists_ , and immediately after she strolled through the ballroom like she owned the place. Something wasn't right here. 

If Adrien had fur, it'd have been standing on end. 

The woman in white calmly stepped up onto the stage, the whole room watching her in pure silence. He felt a delicate hand envelop his wrist. Sparing a second for wary hesitance, he looked down to see his girlfriend, his lady. Her eyes mirrored the cautious worry in his own expression. 

Her words, short, sharp, and hushed, impaled Adrien like a dagger slipping in his side,

" _Tikki went off to go find Plagg when I was changing_."

Adrien physically felt the blood drain from his face. Knowing they heard her, Adrien sent a questioning gaze to Nino and Alya. 

Nino just shrugged while Alya shook her head to answer him. They didn't have their kwamis with them either, it would seem. 

Alya slapped Nino's shoulder, startling him into looking her way. He shot her a bewildered look for only a second, before he got the nonverbal memo. Both of them keeping eyes on the unknown entity, Alya slipped in front of Nino as he backed up towards the exit. 

In the short few seconds of Nino's trek, she began speaking into the microphone. An off-putting pleasantness dripped from her voice. It had a sweet sound, but to Adrien it tasted like rotted honey. 

"Good evening, my dearies. I hope you're all having a lovely time."

She looked over the room of confused faces. Her gaze settled on the table of secret heroes. For the first time that night, Adrien physically felt the cold sweat that had been working its way into his clothes. The instant her lips reopened, a chill arced through him. 

" _As of right now, you're all my hostages._ "

_SLAM_

Nino, only a few meters away, had made it to the doorway, only to be stalled again. The sudden shutting of the doors caused him to bite back a yelp, and everyone looked in his direction. Innocent white bows knotted themselves around the handles. Nino, with haste and panic, ran to the handles and desperately yanked on them. Before his third pull, a ribbon raised up of its own accord. Nino fell backwards as it gave a firm slap to his wrist. The rest of the strap tightened onto the door handles. 

That was the only exit.


	8. He Abandons Us

_'Well, it's still been a pretty good night, akuma or not.'_ Adrien's mind said idly. 

He'd gotten to entertain his friends, he'd gotten to have at least a little champagne, and best of all, he'd gotten to dance with Marinette. The DJ had only played one slow song as of yet, but Adrien got to dance to the upbeat songs too...as best as he could. 

_'There's no shame in your dance moves when you've only ever danced that way once before.'_ Adrien decided. Now this B-word had cut the night short. 

His father was going to have a conniption. 

The thought of Gabriel crossing his mind, Adrien scanned the room. His eyes tightened when his father didn't appear to be there. Even with his better-than-any-normal-human-but-still-not-like-a-cat's night vision, Adrien could not find his father in the dark edges of the room. 

He felt his throat tighten. If he had been sweating bullets before, Adrien would be sweating 1500kmh fighter jets at this point. 

A touch to his arm jolted him. He looked to see a concerned Marinette, gaze questioning. She wasn't given the chance to speak, as the sudden villain cut her off, just as she was opening her mouth. 

" _Now then! I see some of you aren't getting the memo, so let me make this clear._ " the woman's eyes turned into slits as she glared around the room. The sight of it was just as intimidating as her voice. If Adrien truly was a cat, his fight-or-flight instincts would have kicked in long ago. 

He wasn't sure which would've taken charge this time around. 

The blonde woman spoke into the microphone, close to it and dark, 

" _If you don't all call the police right now, there'll be hell to pay._ "

A tense second passed, and suddenly everyone in the room, sans the superheroes, whipped out their phone and furiously began making calls and texts. Adrien almost grabbed his, as though to cover for them, but relaxed slightly when the woman simply untensed. 

Apparently she was quite satisfied with that reaction. 

A dirty scowl coated over Adrien's faceta her smugness. Exasperated, he looked to his friends, helpless as he. 

Nino had made his way back to the table, wearing an expression similar to Adrien's. Leaning on the table, the four of them brought it into a makeshift huddle. 

"So what are we gonna do guys? Obviously we have to do _something_ , right?" Nino asked the group. 

Marinette responded, quickly morphing into the leader position that she had reluctantly assumed. 

"Right. Even if we don't have our kwamiis, I learned a long time ago that we have to do something. We're still superheroes, in and out of the suits."

Adrien voiced the question they were all trying to figure out. "Okay, but what do we need to do?"

Marinette's lips formed a thoughtful pout, as Alya spoke. 

"Well first off, we need to find a way out of here, so we can go get our kwamiis. Where's Chloe at? She'd be a perfect distraction." She said, looking across the tables. 

Adrien grinned, teeth showing from ear to ear. "I think _I_ can handle the distraction."

He winked, and turned swiftly on his heel. Not waiting up for any of the protests from his friends. His eyes stayed tight on the akuma, as he made his way stageside. 

The exit that had been held by ribbons exploded on the other side of the room, across from the stage. Yellow powder mixed in with the sawdust from the demolished doors. The concoction settled some, enough to see a smirking black and yellow figure. 

"Sorry, I tried knocking, but no one answered!" Chloe said, smile widening as she barely managed to restrain her giggles. Adrien felt, more than saw, Marinette roll her eyes. Chloe always got a bit overly pleased with herself at any joke she attempted. 

Chloe was Adrien's friend, but he had to admit, she desperately needed some help in the humor department. Deadpanning thoughts aside, Adrien was more than relieved at her arrival. 

The woman's anger was palpable. Ribbons rose up from all angles, threatening anyone near them like a raised cobra. Quickly, Chloe spun herself around, releasing a fine yellow powder throughout the entire ballroom. 

As Adrien ran back towards their table, he saw it flip up on its side, before yellow filled his vision. The table was fully blocking any view from the stage. While the pollen-smoke screen would still last a short time before dissipating, it would be good to have some hard cover. As guests blindly ran for the door, Adrien swung himself around the edge of the overturned table. 

Chloe peeked over her shoulder, as four kwamiis rushed out of her blonde ponytail. Adrien caught Plagg, before kneeling down with his friends. 

Chloe began speaking quickly, "Okay, what's going on here? I thought we'd get a break from this crazy shit today. Adrien, shouldn't your bodyguard have been able to do _something_ about this?"

Adrien just shrugged back, "He's more for keeping rowdy fangirls away. He's not a whole lot of help against a supervillain."

Marinette broke in before they could idly chat anymore. "Okay, so we're all here now, so we need to find out where her akuma is."

Alya and Marinette both peeked around the large, round bunker they'd made. Despite still seeing a room of yellow, Adrien knew they were visualizing the room. 

A deathly quiet fell over the team. All of the guests had fled, leaving behind the ruined party. It was just them, and their opponent. 

Their far-too-quiet opponent. 

As quietly as she could, Marinette whispered, "Chloe, can you feel where she's at?"

Chloe closed her eyes, feeling the vibrations in the air. Her wings buzzed a bit, almost like a nervous twitch. 

"She's still on the stage," she whispered back, "I'm not sure what she's doing though. Messing with the sound equipment, maybe?"

Marinette spoke to the group, "Alright. Nino, Adrien, you two distract her. Keep the ribbons busy while we work out our next step, alright?"

Two shades of green lit up the group's cover. Both of the boys nodded in confirmation. Before they could step out though, a strange sound filled the room. It sounded like the whipping of a helicopter. 

_Fwefwefwefwefwefwefwe_

The yellow smokescreen began to disperse. The clouds were rapidly billowing away from the stage. Without a second's hesitation, Alya and Marinette transformed. A pink and an orange flash back lit the table. From both sides, heroes rushed out to face their opponent. 

"Chat! Tortue! Keep the bows busy!" Marinette called out. 

"Got it!" The boys said back in unison. They managed to create a path straight to the yet-nameless villain. All three of the girls ran down, dodging the stray whipping ribbon or two. 

Chloe yelled out through the warzone, "We've got a bee-line straight to her!" and closed her eyes to laugh. In a blur of black-and-yellow, Chloe was off her feet and outside of the small safe zone. 

"I've got her!" Alya yelled, rushing off to save the blonde. Marinette was left to her own devices. Sprinting with everything she had, her tunnel-vision was set solely on the white dressed figure. 

A sudden silence filled the room as the tentacles of white were drawn back to the stage. While four heroes stood bewildered, the woman used the ribbons to propel herself forward. 

Straight into Marinette's gut. 

Before she could blink, Marinette was clawing at her stomach and flying back towards the doors. The swift kick had her rolling across the floor and finally stopping once she hit the wall. 

Adrien felt the rage build up in him rapidly. He had understood just how important the job Marinette had asked him to do was. Now though, he was kicking himself for not being right by her side. As soon as he turned to face the stage, six arms pulled him back behind the upturned table. 

Ribbons thrashed on the edges of the table. Nino defended the one side, while Alya spun her flute to defend the other. 

" _Ahh-dammit!_ " Adrien angrily hissed. A now red-dipped ribbon drew back from his face, leaving its mark. 

"Oh dude! I'm so sorry!" Alya distractedly called to him. 

Without notice, the table was lifted away. Tossing it idly to the side, the woman stepped down from the stage and into the spot of moonlight from the glass ceiling. The rain could be heard pelting down above her, yet didn't seem to obstruct the lunar light. 

"As you can see, you're _clearly_ outmatched." she drawled in a snotty tone that could rival Chloe's. Alya, Nino, and Chloe all watched her, ready to jump at a moment's notice. 

Adrien though, fiercely watched the tentacles behind them. He wasn't certain, but they seemed to be inching towards the still groggy figure of Ladybug. 

He wouldn't allow that. 

An eerie purple light glinted off the bows, and Adrien quickly caught on that it was Hawkmoth speaking to her. 

"Sadly, I must bid you all _adieu._ But don't worry, you'll be meeting with me, Pure Reign, again."

With that, the tentacles whipped back to her person. Adrien whipped around with them, only to see "Pure Reign" being lifted up to the skylight. His eyes widened, and he quickly scrambled to catch her. This broke the others from their stupor, and they followed after him. 

Nino yelled out, "Did she say 'reign' or 'rain'?" to which no one answered. 

Adrien snatched at the tentacles, only a second too late, as they were drawn upwards. Chloe flew up to grab them, but she too, was just a hair's breadth off. Adrien looked up, quickly dropping his head as he caught sight under the akuma's dress.

_'Since when do akuma have underwear?!'_

The others jumped up after her, as her figure ran across the glass and out of sight. Adrien moved to jump again, this time to be stopped by the heavy downpour of rain. 

It hadn't been raining into the room a second before...

He heard Marinette's chuckle, and looked to see her coming toward him, hand clutching her stomach. 

_'I'm sure the others can hold on for a second.'_ Adrien thought. He caught hold of her shoulder to address her. 

"Are you alright?" He asked. 

She smiled, a little pain showing through, "I'm fine, just got the wind knocked out of me. So we gonna go, orrrrr?" She asked, indicating playfully towards the overhead window. 

"Oh, right!" He said, stepping back towards the now slowing raindrops. Before he could step into the shower again, his three wet blobs of friends dropped onto the hardwood dance floor. 

Alya huffed out, "Hfff...we lost her."

Adrien quickly began to bristle again, "What! Well we have to go after her! Which way did she go?"

All three of his friends looked down ashamedly. Alya began to speak, but Nino spoke over her. 

"We didn't see which way she went, there's no way we can catch her now."

Adrien shot his hand straight to his forehead, and ran it through his hair. Marinette spoke up in his stead, "Well, she won't be quiet for long. As soon as she shows up, we'll be on her."

The entire group went quiet, knowing what that meant. 

Pure Reign, as she called herself, had the advantage now. She could plan.

Looking up at the skylight, Adrien watched the sprinkling of water slow, until the only evidence of rain was what was left on the glass. 

And on the hardwood...and himself...and his friends. 

A warm drop slid down his cheek. It drew his attention with its abnormal heat. When Adrien pulled his hand away, the black of his claw was tinted red.

Marinette quickly began fretting over him, despite his claims of it only being a minor cut. 

Her major concern rung through him though, "Can I use lucky charm to fix this?"

They hadn't defeated their enemy. Marinette could use her lucky charm, of course. But with an akuma still on the loose...would it actually fix anything?

Adrien watched her call upon her powers. Of course, the object was a small pack of Band-Aids. He then watched as Marinette moved to fix him up, but hesitated. 

She shrugged and smiled, "I guess it would just disappear in a second."

He agreed, and waited as she called the charm to fix any damage. 

The box of bandages dropped to the floor with a heavy clunk. While Alya quickly picked it up and began opening one for Adrien, Marinette and Adrien both stared at the same spot on the floor where it had landed. A moment later, they looked each other in the eye. 

_'Can I use Lucky Charm to fix this?'_

No. No, she couldn't.


	9. He Scolds Her

Adrien sat on pins and needles. At any moment, a news report would play, or Alya would text their group chat, and they would have to battle Pure Reign again. 

This feeling lasted for days. 

_Dayzzzzzzzzzzz._

3 days, to be exact. 

It was wearing Adrien thin. 

Even his inner voice was beginning to act weird. 

"Hnnnggghhhhzszzzszzzszz-zah!"

_Pop!_

...that was Plagg, not his inner voice. 

"Plagg, seriously. Leave the cheese alone! What if we _neeeeeeed_ it?"

Plagg flew away from the tube full of (or rather, previously full of) cheese wheels. 

"You seriously need to chill out kid. Like, you've been acting _waaayyyy_ funkier than usual. Like even more than when you found out the _thing_." 

Adrien stood up, suddenly defensive, while Plagg simply rolled onto the bed. 

"MARINETTE WAS-"

Adrien quickly hushed himself, remembering that even though he and his friends knew, the rest of the world needed to remain oblivious. He spoke again, restrained, but still defensive. 

"Well, she's _you know who_. But that's beside the point! This is something we _don't_ know. _Not_ knowing something is a way bigger deal than knowing something."

_'My dawg yo!'_ Nino's voice chimed in English. Adrien picked up his phone, quickly swiping his way into the texting group marked _"Squad...and Chloe"_

_'Huh, wonder who changed it. Yesterday it was Alya.'_ Adrien thought, before reading the text. 

_Alya the Awesome: Akuma at the Louvre_

"This is it, Plagg! You all fed up?" 

Plagg eyed another cheese wheel greedily, "Ehhhh, I think I need one more piece of Cam-"

"Claws out!"

A fully transformed Chat Noir leapt from his room. Moments later, he reached the scene before him. From a distance, not much looked out of place. When he drew closer though...all of the bystanders were formed from dots!

"Just like the painting." Marinette said behind him, scaring him half to death and breaking his study of a point-art person. 

Adrien cocked his head to look at Ladybug. 

Yep. 

Still beautiful. 

Time to kick in the theatrics. 

"Oh no!" he cried dramatically, grasping her arm, "My Lady! Not you too! This villain must pay for turning you into a pile of dots!"

Marinette rolled her eyes, bringing a warm nostalgia to Adrien's chest. She easily pushed him away by the chest, "Someone's feeling better! Glad to see the old Chat is back in business...even if that business is acting," she said with some playful disdain. 

Adrien smirked before surveying the area. "Well, I don't think this is that "Pure Reign" person...so that's good."

Logic was quickly ushered in via Marinette, "Yeah...but what happened to her?" 

"Hey guys! You gonna come help us this time or what?" Alya called out to the two. 

"Welp, guess we'll have to figure it out later!" Adrien said, rushing off to the fight. He heard footsteps, agile and familiar, following close behind. 

The fight took about 4 minutes after that. 

After breaking the tainted paintbrush, Adrien caught Marinette eyeing him. After fixing the people and destruction, she rushed up to him excitedly and caressed his cheek. 

Only to deflate just as quickly. 

She looked down at the ground as she mumbled,

"Your cut's still there."

Adrien felt himself grimace at the new problem they'd found. Gently, he picked up Marinette's face by the chin and spoke comfortingly. 

"Hey Bugaboo. We've got this, alright?"

He waited for her to nod, though she was hesitant. 

"We've _always_ got this. You know why we've always got this?"

Marinette snorted her response, "Because you're always here to 'save the day'?" At this, she mock flexed her biceps, just as he had done so many times before. 

Adrien simply smiled when he said, "Because you've always got me."

Marinette still held the smile on her face. It changed from a silly smile, to a more sobered, sadder smile. 

Adrien knew that he had made her feel better by the way she wrapped her arms around him, and whispered her thanks. When the group parted, it was with a heartfelt wave and smile that Adrien and Marinette left each other. 

Of course, the touching-ness of that moment was ruined as soon as Adrien detransformed. 

"Cheeeeeeseeeeeee! _I NEED CHEESE TO LIVEEEEEEEE_ "

With a groan, Adrien trudged down to the kitchen. Anne's voice came out from his father's study, causing him to pause. 

" _Please! I said I was sorry!_ "

The desperation, pleading tone, and absolute _fear_ in her voice dragged at Adrien's conscience. Without a second thought, he was peeking in through the doorway. 

There he saw Anne, groveling, as Gabriel stood. His frustration was apparent, brow knotted tightly and arms pushing down on the podium. 

With a frightening calmness, he spoke, "Anne, how many orders did I give you?"

If it were even possible, she seemed to sink lower to the floor, "Three."

"And how many did you fulfill?"

"...Two."

Gabriel's fist slammed down, shaking the room, "NO! You only followed _one_ of my orders!"

"B-but how could I have-"

"Enough!" Gabriel cut her off, "In the wake of this, you will personally make sure Adrien's photoshoot tomorrow is flawless. You will also ensure that disgusting cut on his face is properly taken care of and hidden."

Without a moment's hesitation, Anne stood to attention, before bowing slightly, "Yes, _Dieu!_ " 

Adrien backed away from the door, quickly returning to his room. When he shooed Plagg away, sans camembert, he plopped himself onto the bed. 

_'Dieu?'_


	10. He Stumps Me

"Daaaayyyum dude, hasn't that thing healed yet?" Nino asked bluntly. 

Chloe, who was standing next to Adrien's desk, gave a huff before roughly taking Adrien's chin to inspect his cheek. As she did so, an intentional cough came from Alya, who nodded towards a scowling Marinette. 

"Uhh, hello? His girlfriend is _right here?_ "

Chloe replied snootily, "Chlidhood friend. Sorry, but I outrank you." 

The two girls behind them changed their scowls into grimaces, and Adrien had to chuckle at the sight. 

_'She's got you there.'_ He wordlessly portrayed to Marinette.

With a quick raise of her eyebrows and a wink, Adrien got the gist that Marinette wasn't too jealous. After all, she had more than just "chin holding" privileges. 

Another huff from Chloe, "Hmph, Nino's right. It looks like you got that cut like, just today."

Adrien reached up to his cheek, as Chloe strutted to her desk. He could feel the dampness on the broken skin where it refused to heal. While the instructor was prepping for class, Adrien could almost feel the frustrated grimace behind him. He turned around, just to check his hunch. 

Marinette looked positively crestfallen. Adrien's thoughts immediately wanted him to ease her tension, only stopped by Ms. Bustier's teaching.

_'As soon as class is finished, I'll try and comfort her. Right after class. Oh jeez, I forgot to read this part of the story. What was it? The guy...umm...he does the thing?_

_Ughhhhhh._

_I wasted my whole weekend thinking about what Anne said to Father. Speaking of, why the heck did she call him god?! That's...wow, I still can't make any sense of that!'_

Class interrupted his thoughts, "Adrien? What was the main character's reaction to what happened in chapter 6?" Ms. Bustier asked him. 

"Oh! Umm," Adrien struggled to respond, caught off guard, "heeeeeee was confused? And frustrated?"

Ms. Bustier nodded, relieving his anxiety. Then she addressed him again, spiking Adrien's nerves for a second time, "Yes, and what should he have done?" 

"Well...he probably should have asked for help?" He chanced. It seemed Adrien's guesstimating had paid off, as Ms. Bustier picked up the conversation. 

"Correct! The only reason the plot here goes so off the rails, is because Alain keeps everything to himself, and doesn't ask his friends for help."

As she continued teaching, Adrien pursed his lips. For a moment, he turned around to lock eyes with Marinette. She, in return, gave him a questioning look. 

Without a word, Adrien turned back to the front of the classroom. The rest of the class was a thoughtless autonomy for him. His thoughts, heavy and unanswerable, were pushed away in favor of mindlessly doodling. 

As soon as class finished, he felt a light weight carefully settle itself over his shoulders. Marinette spoke casually next to his face, despite hanging over her own desk. 

"Sooooo. Whatcha drawing Adrien?" She asked. 

"Oh it's noth-" Adrien stopped short when he saw what he had been sketching. On the page, five Miraculous stones were scattered around his notes. Rather, the notes took up precious little space, the page being dominated by the magical items. 

"Oh whoaaaa, those are pretty good!" Alya cooed, "Nathanael had better watch his back, you might become the class artist!"

Nathanael, having heard his name, questioned Alya, "Huh? What's that?" 

She quickly deflected him by bringing up the latest art news, something Adrien had never heard of. The two of them strolled out in friendly conversation. Chloe stepped up to Adrien's desk and effectively blocked the redhead's view of the doodled on page. 

Marinette pointed to the sketch of the Turtle bracelet, "I'd say this is the only one that's a bit off."

Nino slapped his hand on the page, sliding it over to himself. After a quick examination, in which Adrien caught sight of a slight pout, Nino crumpled up the page. 

"Hey!" Adrien protested, "My notes were on there!"

Nino gave a very fake sounding air of responsibility, "As the _you-know-what-_ dian, it's part of my job to make sure y'all don't blow the whole secret thing wide op-"

"What secret?!" Alix said cheerfully, busting into the small group's circle. 

"Uhhh-huhuh, it's nothing! Just that...Alya and I areeeeee..." Nino was clearly struggling, looking to his friends for help. Adrien, for one, simply shot back a mildly amused smirk. Chloe's eyebrow raise clearly said, _'You expect me to help?'_

Marinette took pity on him, "He's taking her on a surprise date, it's a secret though! So _don't_ tell Alya okay?"

Alix's eyes lit up, "Really? That's so awesome!" Full of endless energy, she jogged off towards the door, "Don't worry! My lips are sealed!" 

Nino sighed out his stress, "Now listen here, Nine Lives. We need to figure out why that cut is still on your face. It could be like, radioactive or something!"

Adrien, himself being stumped by the small but persistent wound, nodded. 

"Alright, we can try and come up with something tonight."

Nino hummed his response, clearly annoyed that he couldn't do anything in the moment. Marinette and Chloe both wore the same look of concern, and it ached Adrien that he couldn't alleviate their anxieties. 

When Adrien finally arrived home, it was alone that he walked into the entryway. 

"Father?" He called out, the title echoing through the mansion, as it had done countless times before. 

Quietly, Adrien slipped up to his room. Plagg zipped out of his bag, while Adrien removed his shoes. 

"Ohhhhh no kid." Plagg said, seemingly unprovoked. 

Adrien shrugged back, "What?"

Plagg flew up and clamped onto Adrien's nose, looking him right in the eye, "I know that look, and we are _not_ going to your little girlfriend's house before patrol. As much as I wanna see Tikki, I don't think I can handle a transformation! At least, not without a little-"

The kwamii was interrupted by a tap on the glass. He promptly flew over, as Ladybug climbed in through the window. 

"Orrrrr we could have the best of both worlds where I get to be lazy _and_ see Tikki!" 

Plagg nuzzled into Marinette's shoulder, a faint purr rumbling through him. 

"Ohh, it's nice to see you too Plagg." Marinette cooed at him. When her transformation dropped, Tikki landed alongside her partner, giving Adrien a beaming smile that always made his day brighter. 

Adrien, sitting backwards in his desk chair, rolled over to the couch that Marinette was now leaning over the back of. She immediately took his face into her hands, turning his head to look at his cheek. 

Adrien's voice was partly muffled by Marinette's hand, "It's really not that bad!" He protested. 

"Hmm? Oh! Sorrysorrysorry!" Marinette cringed, taking her hands away from his mouth. When clear though, she tilted her own head around to look at his cheek once more. With a sigh, Adrien turned his head away. In the same motion, he stood and walked over to his desk, where the news played off his computer. 

"Marinette really, its fine. I'm sure it just needs some time to heal."

A silent second passed before Marinette spoke, "But what if it doesn't?"

Adrien turned around and hoped his words sounded nonchalant,  
"Well then it's just a cut! No big deal, right?"

The computer behind him played the tune he had come to both love and hate. It was the sound effect used just before _'Breaking News!'_

"Breaking News!" Nadja calmly told the audience, "Paris is in danger yet again from another of Hawkmoth's villains. Reports are coming in of-"

Adrien spun towards the window, "Alright Plagg let's-"

"Wait." Marinette told him, grabbing him by the arm. Adrien looked down to see her staring wide-eyed at the still running newscast. 

When he looked back, what he saw was white ribbons, each one causing its own chaos in the street. 

Before he knew it, Marinette had pulled him back over to the monitor. She focused her gaze closely, following something that Adrien hadn't caught yet. 

"There." She said, pausing the streaming broadcast, "Right there."

Adrien followed to where her finger was pointing. There, he saw the end of a ribbon. 

The tip was dipped in red.


	11. He Allows Us

The fight had broken out near the Champs-Elysees. As of the moment, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Tortue were the only heroes on the scene. 

"Yeah! You go Tortue!" Alya called out from the sidewalk. 

Adrien rolled his eyes, while Nino gave a short wave to the girl. Sure, they _had_ all agreed that Alya needed to keep up with the Ladyblog to avoid suspicion. 

But it sort of felt like she was messing with them. 

"Hey, Chat Noir! Don't forget to smile for the camera! C'mon! Let's see your best model pose!"

Marinette leapt onto a rooftop to avoid another sweep of the whipping bows. She glared down at the dark street below, where Alya was lit up by the streetlamp. 

"Alya! Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

That was her cue, Alya nodded to her friend before disappearing down an alley. The fighting continued, their target still not even making an appearance. All they had seen so far was a lot of ribbons. 

Alya, suited and grinning, popped up from the alleyway and landed next to Marinette. The ribbons had begun retreating further down the street. 

Alya was already racing across the rooftops, "Well? Let's go slowpokes!"

"Alya! Wait up!" Marinette yelled, hot on her trail. The boys were down in the street, running along with Marinette. The white strands remained on the street level as well, and as they approached a break in the row of buildings, Alya dropped down just around the corner and disappeared from Adrien's view. He knew Marinette had lost her as well, by the way she sped up. 

When Adrien reached the intersection, he saw the heavy downpour that covered this part of the city. It was a wet curtain of water that Alya was just breaching. The white ribbons continued into the rain, and all too suddenly Adrien's eyes widened in horror. 

He wasn't sure who yelled her name out, whether himself or one of his friends, but when Alya turned around, that same look of terror filler her eyes. The world continued on in slow motion, as a single white ribbon held itself up from outside the alleyway. It was poised behind Alya, the other ribbons having led her into the trap. 

As the dangerous cloth dashed forward at the fox heroine, a red dot came into Adrien's peripheral. 

It was Ladybug's yo-yo. 

The helplessly tense moment dragged on. Breathing had become difficult. It was difficult, until Adrien watched the ribbon impale itself into Alya's calf muscle. 

Then it became damn near impossible, as Alya fell to the ground, and Ladybug's yo-yo whizzed over her head before zipping back from its missed target. 

After the car-crash like slow motion, the world now moved on at double it's normal speed. Adrenaline coursed through Adrien, and his body felt lighter, if not numb, as he and Nino picked up their friend from the water drenched street. 

Seeing Nino look back, Adrien did the same, only to wish he hadn't. Marinette spun her weapon around, fiercely defending from the white vipers. It took all of his will not to drop Alya right then. 

"GO!" Nino yelled at him. With a quick nod, he handed his injured teammate off to Nino. 

Spinning his staff, Adrien quickly reached his partner. Back to back, they managed to fend of the swiping ribbons. A few stragglers tried to reach at their friends further on, but a quick extension of his staff, or a short whipping of her yo-yo and they were held back. 

In an instant, the bows attacking them were greatly lessened. A heinous cackling rang out over the rushing of rain. It was a laugh that made Adrien growl spitefully. He caught the worried sideways glance that his Lady gave him, but she said nothing. They waited, on edge and on guard, as they waited for the imminent reveal of their enemy. 

"My, my! Aren't you a couple of tough customers." The woman cooed, a patronizing tone in her voice. In the middle of the street, ribbons held up the woman. Last time, she had called herself "Pure Reign." 

While the woman droned on, as akumas always did, Adrien took in as much of her as possible. The cursed object had to be there somewhere. 

In his observation, Adrien took note that a generous amount of space around the woman was void of rain. She didn't like getting wet, it seemed. A rueful grin crossed Adrien's face, only partly from realizing this woman was a walking pun. 

"Hey!" He yelled out to her, and the appalled look she shot back was well worth interrupting her, "What's the matter with getting wet? I don't think you'll be melting anytime soon."

" _Chat_." Marinette hissed through her teeth, " _I was getting information out of her!_ "

Adrien gulped, the torrent of rain still enveloping the both of them. It only added to the suddenly furious look of his partner. 

" _Oh._ " was his only defense. 

She let out a frustrated breath, and he saw her jaw lock up. Clearly gritting her teeth, she yelled out over the rainfall, "And what if you get our Miraculous? Would you hand them over to Hawkmoth?"

A wicked smirk spread over Pure Reign's face, "I would do with them whatever my master asked. As of right now, his orders are to retrieve them, _at all costs._ "

Adrien's brow furrowed, and he saw Ladybug's do the same. 

_'Master?'_

He certainly never remembered any akuma using _that_ term before. Not to mention this was the second time running into this same woman. 

Before Adrien could continue his mental detective work, a wall of white dashed forward from Pure Reign. Whatever she had yelled before attacking was lost to the sound of rain. 

After an intense few seconds of batting away bundles of ribbons, Adrien's footing was suddenly ripped from under him. Rain prickled against his exposed face, as he saw Ladybug's red hand reach out for him in vain. 

Blood rushed to his head, as an upside down version of the blonde woman addressed him, "Hmm, so it seems I've found a kitten in the rain. Wouldn't you like to stay dry, little kitten?"

In his current state, making sense of how to escape was a challenge. He didn't dare take his eyes off the woman, but without seeing the rope that held him up his one foot, there was little chance of escaping. All around them, a sphere of white ribbons had twisted into a small, protected interior. Adrien elected to do what he'd always done best.

It was time to get under this woman's skin, in the most irritating way possible. 

"Taking in animals off the street isn't very smart, you never know _what they might DO!_ " Adrien warned her, just before shaking his soaking wet mop of hair. The woman was within arm's reach. Her face was assaulted with water, almost all of it landing somewhere on her person. 

"Why you little-" Pure Reign growled out. She stopped short, and Adrien was caught off guard when she examined his face. 

She was grinning at him, staring at the cut she had made like a trophy. 

"Interesting." was the only comment she made. After twisting his face a little more in checking the cut, Adrien was abruptly dropped onto the ground. Scrambling to his feet, Adrien drew his staff defensively. 

"I'll give you a way out, for today." Pure Reign said, backing away from him slightly, "I want you to help us, Chat Noir. In return, I want to help you back."

The words were easy to spit out at her, "You have nothing I want!"

She only shook her head, tutting at him, "Now, now. Don't be so certain of that. Here is my deal. If you swear that the next time we meet, you will hand over your Miraculous, then I won't hurt _her._ "

As soon as Adrien realized what she meant, a break in the white dome drew in red spotted Marinette. She thrashed about wildly, drenched, and armed with only a steel bucket. 

"Chat!" She yelled out.

Ribbons snapped up at her wrists and forehead. Effectively, she was held in place everywhere but her one foot. The strand that held her head still slithered it's end around her throat in an abundantly clear threat. 

"I know you better than you think, Chat Noir."

Adrien reactively scoffed at the ignorant statement, but she continued on. 

"I know that when you promise something, you'll deliver. Unlike some of the _dishonest swine_ that you call friends, you'll keep your word." Pure Reign lashed out. 

While her words enraged Adrien, he simply didn't have time to defend his teammates' honor. 

He could hear Marinette screaming at the villain, demanding that she take back her words. Adrien's heart rate increased as the two exchanged verbal abuses.

Adrien's eyes were focused on the red tipped ribbon that was wove around Marinette's throat. 

"Okay!" He yelled out, and both of the women fell silent. He took another breath to steady his nerves, as his face switched between the two of them. 

"Okay. Next time we face off, I will give you my Miraculous."

" _Chat, no!_ " A chokingly restrained voice cried out. 

It pained Adrien to ignore her pleas, but he couldn't let her get hurt. Hearing her voice filled him with angry desperation. 

" _Will you let her go now?!_ "

Pure Reign mockingly deliberated for a moment, before nodding enthusiastically, "But of course! Oh how romantic! The knight sacrifices his own power to save the one he loves!"

In another setting, Adrien may have appreciated the sentiment. Now though, his gaze was firmly fixed on the white ribbons that set down Ladybug. When firmly on the ground, the cursed bows retreated and Marinette was left on her hands and knees, gasping for air. 

Having rushed to her side, Adrien's clawed hands rubbed her back to try and soothe her. With gritted teeth, he watched as Pure Reign retreated into the Parisian night. The downpour which had been meters away a moment before, now enveloped them again. 

Marinette looked up at Adrien with a smirk that didn't match her ragged breathing, "Well crap, and here we'd just dried off."

Adrien smiled fondly at her before looking again towards their foe. 

"Well, my darlings, it was fun playing with you all! Adieu for no-AHHHH"

A shrill scream broke her taunting, and into view came a long, straight katana, blade glimmering in the streetlamp light. The thin yellow hilt was held by a pair of black gloves belonging to Chloe. 

"How dare you! I will tear you-"

The telltale purple butterfly rimmed her face, and her anger only seemed to grow. Gritted teeth spat out threats at the three teens, "You brats got lucky today! Next time we meet, it'll cost you more than just a hurt leg!"

As she jumped away onto the tile rooftops, Chloe chased after.

"I'll get her!" She yelled back. 

"Queen Bee no!" Marinette cried forward.

Chloe stopped, but turned around to snap at Marinette, "She's getting away! I'm chasing after her whether you like it or not!"

Marinette began standing, making to speak. Adrien quickly cut her off though, "Just hold on a second, alright? I thin-"

"A second is too damn long!" Chloe screamed at him, "She hurt Alya, she hurt you! Don't you even _want_ to stop her?!"

Marinette, having fully stood, walked up to Chloe and put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Chloe," she said softly, "I understand how you feel, you know I do! But right now, even if the three of us went after her...I don't think we'd stand a chance."

The three of them looked up as the rain abruptly stopped, the sheet of water moving down the street where Pure Reign had run. 

Adrien chimed in with the same tone Marinette had used, "Ladybug's right. Our first priority should be helping Alya. If her wound is anything like my cut..."

He watched as both of the girls' eyes widened. Without another second's hesitation, they sprinted to where Alya and Nino had taken cover behind the street corner. Adrien, not being ready for them to run, was just a moment behind them. 

"-gonna be fine." He heard Nino tell them, "But we have to find a better way to stop the bleeding. I can't stay transformed forever. 

As if to prove his point, his jade bracelet chimed out. Another section darkened, leaving but a small fraction glowing. 

Around Alya's wound was a green force field of sorts. It wrapped tightly around her calf, keeping the blood as contained as possible. 

"Tikki, spots off!"

The small red kwamii dashed out of Marinette's earrings faster than Adrien had ever seen before. She shot straight towards Alya's leg.

Alya, for her part, was keeping her injured leg very still given the circumstances. Instead, she let her upper body writhe painfully. Her movements gave Adrien ghost pains.

Tikki examined the injury closely, leaving the youths to fret above her. With relative calm, she looked up and told the group, "I can give off a healing burst, it'll exhaust me for...a while, but it'll at least stop the bleeding."

Marinette was immediately about to object, stopping as she looked up at Alya's pained face and gritted teeth. Taking in a deep breath, she nodded at her kwamii. 

Tikki floated till she was directly touching Nino's forcefield. 

"Drop it." She told him. 

A second's hesitation held Nino before he closed his eyes, turning his head away. The green glow of his power that held together Alya's leg flickered away. 

Tikki's eyes seemed to burst open, glowing bright pink like tiny headlights. A field of the same color exploded out of her body, expanding around the whole group. Adrien, being the farthest out behind Chloe and Marinette, watched as it expanded and stopped just after he was enveloped. Quickly, the energy Tikki gave off was taken back into her. 

Just after the street was darkened again, Nino's form flashed. He sat kneeled, now in his street clothes. 

Adrien's cheek tingled. 

Alya's breathing returned to normal.

Tikki slid off of Alya's shin, where Nino quickly caught her in his palm. 

Marinette began tugging frantically on Adrien's arm, "Detransform! Let Plagg see her!"

"O-oh right." Adrien said, taking a moment to get his bearings, "Claws in!"

Plagg rushed down even faster than Tikki had a moment earlier. 

"Tikki! Dammit Tikki, you shouldn't have healed them all! All you needed to do was the journalist."

Adrien felt a delicate hand touch his face, and his gaze was drawn away from the magical creatures. Marinette ran her fingers over his cheek. 

It was smooth. 

He brought his hand up and touched it as well, their fingertips brushing, before he smiled and took her hand in his own. As soon as his smile came, it was struck down when he remembered the reason it was healed. 

"Plagg, will she be alright?" Nino asked. 

Wayzz answered instead, "She'll be fine in a few days. But she'll need lots of food, and lots of rest. And _no cookies!_ " he said firmly, clearly directed at Tikki. 

A faint groan came from the exhausted bug. 

Marinette's brow furrowed, "Well then what do I feed her? I've always given her cookies."

Wayzz smiled in a good natured way, "While Tikki may prefer cookies, she should really be eating more...natural sugars. Foods such as apples, carrots, and even honey!" 

Marinette tutted at her kwamii, "And here she told me she could only eat pastries."

Another groan came from the red kwamii. It seemed she knew what she was in for. 

"Well Adrien, looks like you get to spend a week with your little lady friend. Because I'm not leaving Tikki's side." 

"What?!" Adrien cried out, to which he was quickly hushed by the group, he continued on after his shaming, "Plagg! What if I need you to fight an akuma?"

Plagg waved at the three newer teammates, "I thought that's what these kids were for. Nino's got that special spell going for him, right?"

Suddenly being addressed startled Nino, "Huh? Oh, I mean yeah I do. But it only traps the akuma, it doesn't purify it."

Chloe chimed in, "Well we don't really need to purify it, do we? Once Marinette is back, she can just take care of whatever we've caught."

People began coming out of their homes, having heard the commotion in the evening hours. Now that the danger seemed to have cleared, they all began poking out of their hiding holes. 

Adrien was the first to say it, "We need to get out of here."

With practiced speed, the group made a hasty escape. Chloe picked up Marinette and Adrien first, dropping them off on top of the building they had just been huddled against. When she hopped back up, Nino was next, since he was still untransformed. Shortly after, a hobbling, but super-suited, Alya was taken up. 

Nino fed Wayzz his food, a special homemade concoction that Nino refused to share the recipe of, but looked suspiciously like hamster food pellets. Plagg actually took some convincing to eat his cheese. Only on the second inquiry did Plagg quickly swipe the camembert from Adrien's hand. 

When the four of them finally were ready to go, Adrien picked up Marinette. 

"Well, I guess we could try my place first?" he shrugged in a less than hopeful manner. 

"Whoa whoa Adrien, hold up." Nino said, grabbing his shoulder, "What if...all _five_ of us stayed at your place?"

Nino stared into Adrien's doubting eyes as he made the universal sign for having one's mind blown. 

"Somehow I don't think my father would be down for that, Nino."

Gabriel looked down at the five teens from his perch above the first staircase, them now standing (as normal civilians) in his entryway. 

"Well, I don't see the harm in it. Naturally, Adrien will have to keep up with all of his responsibilities though."

"Naturally." Nino commented, only sarcastic enough that his four friends understood. At least, Adrien thought it was sarcasm...maybe it wasn't? He always had a hard time telling. Especially now when he was slack jawed at his father's reaction to all of this. 

"Nathalie will be giving you a rundown of the house rules. Should any one of these rules be broken, or should Adrien's schedule be hindered in any way due to this, everyone will be escorted out of the mansion immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

Each of the kids nodded as convincingly as possible. 

"Good. Nathalie." Gabriel called to his secretary, already standing next to them. Gabriel made his way back towards what Adrien knew to be his father's bedroom. 

Nathalie stepped forward, addressing the group, "Breakfast will be served at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. If there are any allergies, please let me know before then. As I can see that none of you have your personal affects, you will be expected to retrieve them by lunch tomorrow and I will be checking them to ensure-"

While Nathalie went down the list of house guidelines, Adrien nudged Marinette. When she looked at him, he whispered into her ear, "Can you believe this? My father, just letting us all stay over? No fuss, no...anything."

Marinette turned back and stared intently at Nathalie for a moment. Adrien assumed she didn't have a response, with how long she paused. While Nathalie told them what he already knew, he looked at the friends he was about to spend the next few days with nonstop. Nino had his arm around Alya’s waist in a nonchalant way to support her. Chloe was already bouncing in place. 

Without turning, Marinette whispered out the side of her mouth, 

"Maybe he's changing?"


	12. He Schemes with Her

Gabriel studied the page he had electronically saved to his computer. Pointing to a squared symbol, a tail coming off the bottom right, he turned to the only other being in his study.

"Nooroo, what is this symbol. I thought it meant power, but in this context it wouldn't make sense."

The purple kwamii flew over to the screen, "This symbol is referring to energy, which also-"

"Which changes the meaning of the next one into the word burst, or bursting. I see, thank you Nooroo, you can go now." 

Nooroo gave an indignant huff before flying towards the bookshelf again. Gabriel suspected that he was getting fed up with his treatment. Not that the kwamii would be able to do anything about it, he was fully in control of the small deity. 

And he who controls a god...

Gabriel smirked before looking at the clock. 

10:25 pm, and he had a meeting in the morning. He locked the computer, before shutting it down. This was becoming too easy, and all he'd needed was a little help. 

"Ohhhh Gabrieeeelll!" A woman's voice echoed outside the door. 

Gabriel closed his eyes, taking an exasperated breath before answering, "Yes Anne, come in."

The door flung open wildly, and a blonde mess of hair and pajamas rolled inside. 

Gabriel, unamused and unperturbed, glared at the girl. When she combed her hair back and shot him a sheepish grin, he finally dared to ask, "What exactly happened to you?"

Not even slightly intimidated, as Gabriel had hoped she would have been, she answered confidently, if bashful, "Well you see, I went to go check on the kids in Adrien's room, right?" 

As she retold the story, her excitement rose, and she began gesturing grandly with her hands.

"And they had just gotten chocolate milk! And I looooveeeee chocolate milk. So when Adrien offered me some, I just- I couldn't say no because he was so sweet about it and like, I can _totally_ see why Marinette fell for him-"

"Anne." Gabriel deadpanned.

He was ignored. 

"-so we're all talking right? And suddenly Alya throws a pillow at Nino! I have no idea what he said but-"

"Anne." Gabriel said again, louder than before. 

Ignored again. 

"-and when it hit Chloe! Oh maaan, that's when all hell broke loose! There were pillows left and right, I think I got some feathers up my nose! Oooooh it was fuuuuunny!" Anne laughed, seemingly finished with her tale. 

Gabriel smiled, the muscle formation leaving a sour taste in his mouth, "Anne, my dear?"

Anne gasped, and quickly ran up to him. Being more than a whole head shorter than him, she looked up at him, forcing him to look down. Drawing circles on his chest, she asked him, as sultry as she could manage, "Yes? Gabie dear?"

The smile was erased from his eyes, but the girl failed to get the memo, still toying with his shirt fabric. 

"Did you do what I asked?"

Anne finally stopped her hand's movement, blinking up at him wide-eyed. She gulped, and Gabriel immediately felt the anger boil up inside of him. She broke eye contact when she spoke, "A-and...what exactly...was it you asked?"

The girl's cringing did nothing to save her from Gabriel's contained anger. 

"Imbecile!" He said loudly, striding away from her and back towards the desktop, with his hands clasped behind his back. His words were angrily halting, for dramatic effect, "I asked you to do one thing! See. If Adrien. Still. Had. The cut! And what do you-"

"Ohhhh the cut!" She interrupted, "No, that old thing is long gone. Not even a scar!" She told him as if discussing celebrity gossip. 

"WHAT?!"

Gabriel immediately unlocked his computer again. Pulling up the locked file of the ancient book, he began scrolling until he found the page of the Black Cat miraculous. 

When no symbols about healing jumped out at him, only those of death and destruction and something about balance, Gabriel snapped his head back up to his "assistant."

She was unwrapping a chocolate bon-bon from the dish she had insisted on placing in his office. 

"You're certain that Adrien did not have a cut on his cheek?" He asked impatiently.

"Pretty sure."

The older Agreste had to restrain himself from outright growling. 

"Well are you sure, or are you _pretty_ sure? Which is it?" He muttered at her. 

She took a second to unwrap the chocolate, "If you count rubbing my thumb over his cheek and having it feel like a baby's bottom, then yes. I'm very sure."

The creepiness of this childish woman doing that to his son was only a spark in the wrathful flame that she had ignited. It was hardly important, he deemed, in the face of losing all that he had worked for as Paris' alleged villain. 

"And? What did he say?" He asked. 

Anne finally gave him her attention, still smacking her lips together with the sticky sweet in her mouth and distorting her words, "Oh, he didn't say. I just told him that you would be happy it healed, since we can resume photoshoots again."

Gabriel put a frustrated hand to his forehead.

Why oh _why_ had the only person smart enough to figure out who he was, have to be so _stupid?!_

Instead of giving another frustrated question to the the blonde brick wall in his office, he began scrolling through the book again. A complicated code, written by sensible people, that had taken him years to even begin to crack. That's the type of allies he could've used at the moment. 

When he had aimlessly flipped through the pages, not sure what to look for, he thought of another question for her. 

"And what about Chat Noir? You said he had the cut on his cheek just last night, no?"

Unwrapping her third sweet, Anne nodded at him apathetically. 

"Yeah, he did."

Gabriel set himself in front of the screen again, settling on the Black Cat page. "But we had been so sure of it! In addition to the cut, Adrien's disappearances coincided with each of-"

A thought dawned on him. 

Scrolling to the next page, he yelled at the wall of books, "Nooroo, come quickly!"

A few second's delay, and the purple bug came out of the bookshelf again, "What is it, Master?"

Gabriel pointed to the symbols on the Ladybug page, "If this means energy, and the third means burst, then what does this one mean?"

Nooroo reluctantly glanced at where the man's finger was settled on the first symbol of the three. After nervously swallowing, he spoke, "It means healing."

Gabriel nodded his head, an enlightened smile growing. 

Healing Energy Burst. 

That could explain it. It still wouldn't confirm anything, but it would make his theory strong enough to test. If, in the next fight, Rena Rouge showed up with no injury, that would explain why Adrien's cheek had suddenly healed. 

Or even if Chat Noir's cut was healed...

_THUD_

The sudden presence of sound disturbed Gabriel's cunning scheming. His brow furrowed as he stood.

"Anne," he addressed her, and she immediately gave him her attention, "I think it's time to go check on the kids."

Her eyes lit up once again, "Oh! I can sir!"

He considered her for a moment. Blonde disheveled hair, childish pink unicorn pajamas, and bare feet all adding to one child masquerading as an adult. She would fit right in with the teenagers. 

He gave her a nod, saying, "Well, go on ahead. I'll be there in a moment."

Bursting with joyous energy, she dashed out the door and presumably up to Adrien's room to tell them the good news. 

Gabriel chuckled to himself, "I guess I'll have to go change then."


	13. He Joins Us

"Okay kids! I've got to go talk to Adrien's father, so behave yourselves, alright?" And with a wink, she was gone. 

Nino looked at the clock, which read 10:25 pm. 

"Jeeeeez, I thought she would never leave!" He said dramatically. 

"Oh come on Nino," Marinette defended, "There's nothing wrong with her! She really nice, and a lot of fun!"

Chloe looked up from her spot on the couch, "Yeah, well I still think it's gross. Her and Uncle Gabe, gallivanting about like that. I mean, how old is she, 19?"

"She's 28, Chlo." Adrien deadpanned.

Chloe gave a shrewd chuckle, "Then what is she doing hanging around us?"

Alya seemed thoughtful at this, "Hmm, it is suspicious that she's so interested in us five..."

Marinette quickly jumped at Alya, getting her into a friendly headlock, "Ohhhhh no. You're not doing another conspiracy theory again, remember when you thought Mr. Damocles might be Hawkmoth?"

Alya stood resolute despite her laughing, "I still say the verdict is out on that one! It was worth the suspension."

Nino pulled the two girls apart, "Alllllright ladies, we need to get to business alright?"

Still laughing, they all mentally prepared themselves to think. 

Alya took her place in front of the television, while the other four settled into the couch. She couldn't help the smirk at seeing Adrien and Marinette scrunched together like they were. 

"So," she began, "What we know about this Pure Reign person, a presentation by Alya Cèsaire."

The four on the couch applauded sarcastically, as they were forced to do in class.

Alya flicked on her phone, and already having it linked with Adrien's television, brought up the prepared slideshow. 

"Now then," she explained as the pictures of their enemy slideshowed across the screen, "We know that she's a female, and that her powers include controlling rain, and controlling tentacle like ribbons. Really, _really_ painful ribbons."

After rubbing her mostly healed calf, she continued, "We know that she has been akumatized more than once. We also know that Hawkmoth gives her much more specific directions than most akuma. Everytime she ran away, it was right after that glowing purple butterfly appeared over her eyes."

Adrien, sensing the presentation coming to a close, added in.

"She...also called Hawkmoth, _'Master'_ when we fought her last."

Alya's eyes tightened as she processed this. In the same moment, Nino drew out the thick, ancient book that housed the secrets of the Miraculous.

Marinette turned around, leaning over the back of the couch, "Tikki!"

When she didn't respond right away, she discreetly called out again, "Tikki! Where are you?"

The bright red bug phased out of the wall, near Adrien's bed. Despite her flying, Tikki's voice betrayed her exhaustion, "Here I am Marinette!"

"Tikki? Where were you? I thought you were resting!" She asked. Adrien also thought it was strange, that Tikki had been somewhere else in the mansion. 

Speaking of which, where was Plagg?

Tikki landed on the back of the couch, "Oh! The other kwamiis and I were...playing tag! Yeah, in the walls!"

Adrien didn't fully believe the weak grin that Tikki was giving, but had learned pretty quickly, when a kwamii didn't want to share information, they wouldn't. 

Usually, it was for the better anyways. 

While Marinette and Tikki chattered on, Alya had made no progress.

"You get anything yet Nino?" She asked. 

Chloe, who had been looking at the tome as well, answered for him, "All these symbols are a bunch of gibberish! Of course we haven't gotten anything!"

Nino glared at her, "Actually, I happen to know almost all of these symbols, thanks to what Wayzz and Master Fu have taught me."

Here, his glare faltered, and he looked up to Alya in front of him, "But no, I haven't found anything yet."

"AHA!" Chloe cried out, "I knew it!"

Nino yelled back, "Yeah! Well...shut up!"

Alya snickered, "Smooth comeback."

He turned on her next, "Oh yeah? I...I bet that I could climb that wall!" 

He pointed at the rock climbing wall that Adrien's extravagant room had on their right. 

Alya just chuckled again, "Yeah? So could I, what's your point?"

A wicked glint flickered in Nino's eye, as the whole room had stopped to watch the exchange. In the same moment, the four remaining kwamiis, Plagg, Trixx, Wayzz, and Pollen, phased in through the same spot Tikki had. 

Nino took a step toward Alya, eye to eye with her, "I can climb that wall, _with all three of you girls on my back._ "

Always one for a challenge, Alya's grin grew wicked.

"Prove it."

Marinette's protests were lost, as the two blondes voiced their approval. 

"Wayzz! Transforme-moi!"

Just like that, a green turtle-like figure was standing at the base of the climbing wall. 

Marinette watched as the rest of her friends transformed as well, leaving her staring at Tikki. She quickly found her excuse, "O-oh! Hey guys, I can't transform! So I guess we can't do this after all!"

"That's okay Marinette!" Adrien said gleefully, "I'll be at the bottom here, so when Nino falls, I'll catch you!"

Nino's claims that he 'certainly' wouldn't drop, fell on deaf ears, as Adrien pulled Marinette from her spot on the couch. The two transformed females climbed onto Nino's holstered shield. Hesitantly, Marinette grabbed onto the middle section, holding the edge of the metal disc. 

Slowly but surely, Nino stepped up to the wall. Adrien watched, arms ready to catch his beloved, as he steadily made his way up the wall. Adrien was surprised that the foot and handholds were able to support all four of their body weights at once. Alya smirked at the boy supporting her. 

Adrien made sure he was ready to catch the raven haired girl, and avoid his friend Nino. 

"Hey Nino," she said quietly to him, and he didn't even look at her, only sufficing to grunt at her. 

Then she blew a hard stream of air into his ear. 

Reactively, Nino swatted at her face. Chloe and Alya both dropped off, landing gracefully. Marinette, having lost her balance along with Nino, fell first. As Adrien had expected, she fell right into his waiting arms. 

Then Nino fell. 

A quick sidestep was all it took to leave the poor turtle-based hero to his fate. 

_THUD_

Adrien winced, as he knew the sound would've been heard by his father, who was in the study just below. 

Adrien quickly went into recovery mode, hushing at the three laughing girls. Nino had landed on his shield, and very much looked like a turtle on his shell. 

" _Dudes!_ Come on, help me up!" Nino pleaded. 

Adrien pulled him to his feet, and immediately winced again. There, right where Nino had landed, was a large splintered dent in the floor. 

"Ooooooh," Alya cringed as well, "That's...gonna be tough to explain."

Adrien's ears twitched, and he saw Alya's do the same. 

Someone was coming, running in fact, and they had bare feet. 

Adrien and Alya spoke in unison, "Anne's coming!"

Chloe, Alya and Nino all released their transformations. As swiftly as possible, Marinette shuffled the kwamiis away to the upper level. She stopped though, seeing that Adrien hadn't let Plagg out of his ring. 

"Aaaaadrieeeeeennnn!" She hissed at him. 

Adrien was busy searching for an excuse as to why there was a new dip in the floor. His eyes landed on the basketball hoop, and in one motion, he jumped up to the wall. Tearing the equipment off its holding place, he gently put it on the damaged floor. 

Not good enough, and he could hear the footsteps slowing, as she reached the door. 

Carefully, like someone trying to stealthfully open a brand new bag of chips at midnight, he pushed down on the hoop. The sports piece crunched some, as it fit itself to the pre-damaged hardwood. 

As the door opened, Adrien took one jump to get to the second floor of his room. The green flash was dampened by the blanket fort Anne had helped them to create just hours earlier. 

Anne spoke, vibrant and excited, "Guys! You'll never believ-"

Adrien heard the gasp, and knew without looking what she had seen. Regardless, he came out of the tent of bedsheets, and looked over the railing to see her approach the destruction. 

After a moment of examining the scene like a bloodied body was laying on his floor, she looked around the room and caught eyes with each of them. 

"Well?" She asked to the room, "Hurry up and help me move this! Gabriel will be up here any minute!"

Adrien hadn't been panicked until now. Now, his eyes widened. Now, he sprinted down the spiral staircase to help his friends pick up the basketball hoop. 

Now, he desperately looked for a rug to cover the entirety of his half-court. 

The six of them worked wonders, moving the couch and television to slide the rug over the displaced floor. It really was true, Adrien realized, that many hands make short work. 

A knock at the door, before Gabriel let himself in. The teenagers, as well as the blonde adult, all sat casually in and around the couch. The television was turned to the first thing that had come on. 

Disney channel. 

Adrien rubbed his bottom, as he and Marinette had ended up on the floor in front of the couch. The rug had apparently also been working wonders, since he never remembered the hardwood being this hard before. While doing so, he watched his father stride toward them, blue striped pajamas and all.

He even had a nightcap. 

Gabriel walked to the side of the couch, his intention clearly to address them. In doing so, he walked right onto the rug that they had moved. The anxious tension on the couch skyrocketed. 

The man took a hard step forward, nearly falling on his face as he reached the unforeseen divot. His brow furrowed, and silently he looked between where his foot was, and where a basketball hoop had been hanging. 

In what was becoming habit for him, Gabriel removed his glasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Whomever held the TV remote had the sense to turn it off. Adrien's father took a deep breath before speaking, calmly and yet frightening. 

"Where is it?" He asked, face expressionless as he stared out the wall of windows. Adrien dared look outside, and saw little, save the rapidly darkening rooftops of Paris. 

Anne, oh poor, naive Anne Blanchet, chuckled nervously, "Hehe, umm...where's what?"

The question was innocent enough, and Gabriel hardly reacted to it. Somehow, his patience had grown in the short while Anne had been a part of their life. Adrien wondered if that was from desire to change, or necessity. 

"Where is the basketball hoop?"

Alya was the one to answer, "In the bathroom...sir."

Another deep breath filled the otherwise silent room. Finally Gabriel turned to face the couch. 

"Miss Blanchet," he said, causing her to snap to attention, despite still sitting, "be sure to have the floor fixed while they are at school tomorrow. While the repair crew is here, be sure that I am not understood?"

"Yes sir." Anne replied diligently.

"In the meantime," Gabriel said, an odd cheeriness (if Adrien could call it that) in his voice. A moderately pained smile crossed Gabriel's face as he simultaneously threw his arms out widely and unslouched his shoulders to their natural position, " _what do we do for fun around here?_ "

Adrien felt bad, since his father seemed to be trying, but a thought slipped through his filter and was voiced aloud. 

"Father, that smile is really creepy."

Rather than deflating, his father seemed to relax at the statement. The forced smile retreated, and his shoulders dropped slightly, even if his chest remained puffed outwards. 

"Thank God," Gabriel said, "I don't think I could've held that all night."

This time, Adrien was sure it was unintentional, but the tension was shattered. Everyone on the couch burst out into laughter. 

This would turn out to be an interesting night indeed.


	14. He has Fun with Us

Gabriel raised the gaming remote over his head, inspecting the triggers that Adrien had pointed to. 

"So if I push down on this button, I'll roll out of the way?"

Nino nodded, "Yes, but you also have to push a direction on the stick."

An eyebrow raised, "Stick?"

Marinette, who was seated between Adrien and his father, flicked on the item in question, "The control stick,"

When the man still looked confused, she elaborated, "The one that makes you move."

Gabriel pointed at the control stick, "And that is this one?"

The entire couch spoke at the same time,  
"Yep!"  
"Right!"  
"Yeah."  
"That's the one!"  
"Yesssss."  
"He got it!"

Adrien guessed by his father's grimacing face that he felt rather patronized, so he chose to start the game up quickly, "Umm, Father! Which level should we fight on?"

Gabriel snapped back, "Adrien, I don't know any of these levels, just-"

Something behind Adrien caught his father's eye. Just as Adrien whipped around to look at Anne sitting on the arm of the couch, she turned her attention back to the screen. 

Gabriel cleared his throat before speaking, "What I mean is that," he squinted at the screen, adjusting his glasses, "how about the one that looks like a spaceship?"

Adrien moved the cursor over onto the Corneria level. As the game started up and the characters came on screen, Adrien heard frantic clicking from his left. 

When he looked over, he saw Marinette trying very hard not to laugh as his father thrashed on the buttons. When he realized there was no effect on his character, Bowser, he turned his head to Adrien. 

"Adrien, why isn't anyth-"

The screen erupted in a cacophony of grunts and "hyyah!"s. The disconcerted music had obviously startled Gabriel, and Adrien smirked as he focused on harassing Marinette's "Shiek" character, using his Link. 

In the end, Alya won because she had waited until Adrien and Marinette beat each other to bloody pulps. While Nino pouted over the results, Anne tried to comfort Gabriel. 

He had continually jumped off the stage, quickly wasting all three of his lives. 

The following rounds only gave him a small margin of improvement. After the third loss, Gabriel set the remote down. 

Standing, he smoothed out the front of his night shirt, 

"Anne, could I speak with you a moment?"

He and his friends, the lot of them bewildered, stared at the two adults as they spoke in hushed tones. After a moment, Anne dashed out of the room, whereas Gabriel turned to the group. 

"Anne will return in a moment."

Adrien blinked dumbly at the simple and vague explanation. The six of them sat quietly, awkward silence permeating the room. Adrien could feel it like moisture in the air. 

Anne's bare feet slapped against the hardwood, and a box made it's way into the room just before her. 

A box, containing a new, unopened Monopoly game. 

Adrien gaped wordlessly as Anne set up the board in front of the couch. It wasn't until Marinette, smiling and giddy, nudged his side that he snapped out of the drone-like state. The cute and simple tilt of her head asked him what was wrong. 

He whispered close to her, "I've never actually played a board game with my father before."

Marinette pulled back to look him in the eyes. She was clearly surprised, mouth slightly agape and eyes opened wide. Her shocked expression was replaced with a smirk, and she looked at the now set up table game. Adrien's attention now fell to the game pieces. 

_'Oh look, a cat.'_

Casually, Adrien reached out, plucking the tiny, metal feline from the other pieces. He could feel Nino's smirk from the other side of the table, and did his best to ignore it. Instead, he looked at his father and Anne, who were sitting next to each other. 

His father was shuffling through the chance cards, distracted. Anne however, was giving him a very curious look. 

A look of suspicion. 

In an instant, it was gone, and she returned to her overly cheerful demeanor. 

"Gabriel!" she exclaimed, garnering the table's attention, "I think you should go first, since it was your idea!"

Gabriel accepted this with a nod, and began dealing out everyone's money. Since the game was designed for only six people, they had to improvise slightly. 

So Alya used a spare button from her pajamas.

The game began smoothly enough. Marinette, Adrien, Gabriel and Alya all collected properties. The others, it seemed, were destined to pay tiny and insignificant amounts of rent. This went on for a few times around the board, till finally all but two of the properties had been captured. 

Indiana Avenue, in the red section, and Boardwalk. 

Adrien had managed to snag Park Place, but three times now, had landed on income tax instead of his desired destination of the other dark blue property. His other assets were one of the Railroads, a pink, and two of the orange places. Adrien scanned over the small, economy based battlefield. 

Poor Chloe didn't even have a single property, despite having the most cash and a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, it was clear she wasn't a threat in this game. 

Nino had two of the yellow properties, and one of the reds. Adrien could only assume he wanted the line between Free Parking and Go to Jail. It didn't look likely though, seeing as Alya owned the other red property of Illinois, as well as the final yellow. Nino desperately needed to land on Indiana Avenue. 

Anne, while having quite a few properties, didn't seem too dangerous either. The properties she had were only single ones from the color sets. Her most dangerous asset at the moment was owning three Railroads. 

Adrien glanced at the properties his father owned. Two greens, both the brown properties, and two of the light blues. He was clearly the biggest threat to Adrien. 

Then again, Marinette acted intent to kill in this game. She owned an orange property, two pinks, and both of the utilities. Surprisingly, the utilities had paid out the most so far, since no one had full color set, besides Gabriel owning the two brown properties. 

Curiously, he hadn't even built on them yet. 

Adrien smirked knowingly, as Marinette's eyes lit up. That was the spark that beat akuma, saved their skins, and now was about to spark this resting powder keg. 

"Adrien," she began innocently, "how about you trade me that pink you have, for my orange?"

Her smirk was so familiar and inviting to Adrien, that he unconsciously moved into her personal space, "Hmm, I don't know..." he teased, "why would I want you to have a full color set, wouldn't that hurt me in the long run."

Marinette's smirk grew, and Adrien's, in turn, faltered. He couldn't tell if this was a verbal trap, or if his partner had a plan for the both of them. 

"I suppose you're right," she conceded, speaking as though these were practiced lines, able to predict exactly what Adrien would say and planning her response before initiating the trade, "Then what if I offer you immunity, as well?"

The opposing side of the table erupted in chaos, as Chloe, Alya, and Nino all protested loudly. Finally, Alya quieted the other two, using more than a few rude commands to "Shut up!"

"If you two have immunity, then you're basically just teaming up!" She argued.

The mistake in words hit her all too late, as Adrien and Marinette smiled conspiratorially.

Marinette held out a hand and winked, "Whaddya say, partner?"

Adrien readily accepted, shaking her hand and ignoring the pained groans from their opponents, "I say, I'll give you total immunity if you give me the same."

Marinette tutted at him, "Now, now Kitty Cat, I'll only give you immunity on this row." 

She slid her hand across the pink and orange properties, before looking up at him again, "We can't make things too easy for you, now can we?" 

Adrien forced himself to roll, vehemently ignoring the way his heart pounded loudly because of the girl next to him. The game had taken thirty minutes to find this point.

Now it had reached the climax. 

The board rapidly evolved from there. Four houses being placed on an entire row of properties seemed to be a magic trick, making almost everyone's money disappear. 

Everyone, that is, except for Gabriel's. 

Anne, seeing that se had little hope of winning, endowed Gabriel with everything she owned, save for one dollar. She was the first to be eliminated, not even Marinette could make a stone bleed it turned out. The substantial debt was unrepayable, and Marinette only gained a dollar for her efforts. 

Soon after, Chloe succumbed to crushing defeat, courtesy of Adrien's lead orange property. 

Marinette suddenly took a hard blow, rolling double fives and landing on Gabriel's top green property. Having three houses on it seemed more than enough to cripple her, and while she didn't need to sell any houses, her cash supply became alarmingly low. 

Adrien slid her a few hundreds, in exchange for the electric company. 

His kindness paid of almost instantly, as Marinette rolled a two, and a three on the pair of dice. 

Taking her directly to Boardwalk. 

Marinette happily gave Anne the four hundred dollars, and received the elusive blue property in return. 

A quick exchange, and Marinette had the electric company back, as well as immunity from the heavy-hitting blue properties. Adrien scrambled, and placed the last three houses on the board. 

Adrien had been worried for a moment, but Nino and Alya couldn't seem to agree on a fair deal. They both proposed offers which left the other vulnerable, and refused to accept the other's terms. Due to their bickering, it was a fairly short time before they were both defeated. 

Marinette had gathered Alya's estate, while Gabriel had procured Nino's belongings. Marinette, not wanting to tempt fate since her and her partner were winning, staunchly refused any and all offers that Gabriel put on the table. 

Finally, he turned his sights towards Adrien. 

"Adrien," he began amicably, "I would like to trade you the light blue properties, and the brown properties, in exchange for Park Place and Boardwalk."

Adrien and Marinette both balked at the proposal. Marinette laughed though her words, "Why would he do that?!"

Gabriel, calm and analytical, pointed near the Jail property, "Because then the two of you would own this entire half of the board, from GO to Free Parking."

Adrien tapped his cheek, a habit he'd picked up from Marinette, as he thought it over. His partner however, seemed appalled that he was even considering the offer. 

"A-Adrien!" she worriedly cried out, "Why would you do that? We have him on the ropes! If you give him that whole side-"

"DEAL!" Adrien said, loud and confident, and brimming with enough enthusiasm for Marinette to grab his shoulders and shake him. 

"WHY. DID. YOU. DO. THAT?!" She crowed, alternating between shaking him and looking him in the eyes, panic evident. 

Adrien, shrugging and grinning, just replied casually, "To make things interesting!"

When Adrien looked at the board though, he realized her point. Especially since her was just around the corner from what was now his father's home turf. 

He didn't even make it to GO. 

With Gabriel in control of Adrien's wealth as well, he made quick work of Marinette. By the time it was all said and done, Adrien couldn't help but laugh at her misery. Marinette was competitive, that much was certain. The fact that he had helped her demise wasn't winning him any points. 

Her pouting was too entertaining not to laugh though. 

The game had run well into the night. So after both Anne and Gabriel made a point to mention how they had school the following day, the two adults left them to their own devices. 

Gabriel placed the Monopoly game with the other board games, all of them having collected enough dust to kill a man. He smiled to himself, realizing just how much fun he'd had that night. When he turned around, Anne was just behind him, and she stretched onto her toes to get in his face. 

"Well? Did you notice anything?" she asked him. 

Gabriel grew confused, "Noticed?"

She rolled her eyes at him, scoffing before she gently springboarded with her hand, off of his chest.

She turned to him, an exasperated glare in her eye, "If Adrien is Chat Noir. Did you forget?"

A furious scowl marred Gabriel's face, and before he knew it, his hand smacked up into his own face out of frustration. 

Anne sauntered toward him, slow and sultry, "Ohhhh, don't worry, _Dieu_ ," she cooed, "I was paying attention for you."

Gabriel straightened himself, easily ignoring Anne's hands that had been placed at his hips. He looked her dead in the eye, before raising an eyebrow. 

" _And?_ "


	15. He Meets Them

The bakery bell chimed, as Adrien submerged himself into the warm, pastry tasting air. The intoxicating sugary smell made him smile broadly. Adrien turned towards his father, who was also immersed in the smells of baking. 

He wasn't smiling. Rather he seemed to be examining the shop, face somehow even more neutral than usual. 

Sabine walked forward from the back room, "Oh! Adrien, nice to see you dear! M. Agreste, it's good to finally meet you."

She brought out her hand to shake his, and Gabriel didn't hesitate to shake it amicably. 

"Mme. Cheng, the pleasure is all mine." 

Sabine quickly brought out two aprons, handing them to Adrien and his father. Adrien watched him with worried curiosity, wondering how he would behave. A couple weeks after his friends had stayed an entire week at their mansion, Adrien still couldn't come close to predicting his father's next move. 

Gabriel had insisted on accompanying Adrien, under the pretense of meeting the Dupain-Chengs. Adrien had tried to explain that they would be baking treats, but this failed to deter his father. 

Adrien still was suspicious of all this attention. He couldn't pin down why, but something about all of it seemed off. In the same breath though, Adrien couldn't deny the moments when his father was clearly enjoying himself. 

Enigmatic. 

That was the word escaping Adrien's mind, until just now. 

When he watched Gabriel put the apron on, an odd sight to see, he knew what word fit his father in the last few weeks. 

Enigmatic. 

The two of them were lead into the heart of the bakery. Stoves blasted heat into the room, as finished products sat on the far side of the room. Adrien had seen this before, with Marinette, but it still seemed alien to him. 

Marinette was kneading dough, but looked up to greet them, "Adrien! M. Agreste! Hi!" 

She grinned at them, and Adrien returned the gesture. Gabriel spoke, "Marinette, I see you're hard at work." 

Turning to the large figure of Tom, Gabriel extended his hand, "M. Dupain, a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for welcoming us into your home."

Tom laughed, low and burly, "Of course! It's great to have you! Besides, you're here to work after all, right? Who am I to turn down a free worker?"

Gabriel laughed, to Adrien's surprise, a genuine laugh. While the men spoke, Adrien sauntered over to Marinette. On the way over, he picked up a handful of flour. 

When he came with a half meter, Marinette spoke without looking up, 

"Don't even."

Adrien bit his lip, as he thought about feigning innocence. After a moment's hesitance, he sighed, and dropped the white powder on the table. 

After all, there would be plenty of time to get her back for throwing him in the Seine during the last akuma fight. They both knew it had been an accident, but that wouldn't stop him from messing with her. 

Adrien, having been in the kitchen before, began kneading dough with Marinette. Tom took Gabriel around the kitchen, finally bringing him around to help knead dough with them. 

There was an amicable silence, as the three of them massaged the dough. The quiet was peaceful, the baking ingredients not requiring speech. 

So it startled Adrien when his father's cell phone began ringing. 

Wiping his hands, Gabriel stepped away from the table as he took the call. It was short, apparently only requiring Gabriel's confirmation of something business related, Adrien decided. 

Gabriel returned to the dough, kneading it the same way he had observed the younger two do so. 

Adrien was startled again, this time by the sound of screeching tires. The ruckus outside grew louder, as Adrien could hear screams. Quickly, and still covered in flour, the two heroes rushed out front. 

Pure Reign, with her telltale ribbons of white, had begun terrorizing civilians just outside the bakery. Adrien followed his partner just outside, avoiding the soaking wet rain as their enemy moved closer. The dry circle around Pure Reign managed to benefit them this time. 

Suddenly, Adrien saw a small body fly towards them, flung by a ribbon. Adrien braced himself, ready to catch the high velocity child. Just before impact, Adrien felt a familiar pair of feminine hands brace up against his back, managing to hold him in place as his arms wrapped around the young child. 

The three of them scurried back inside, Adrien carefully standing the small girl up. She couldn't have been older than ten. 

"Are you hurt?" Marinette asked.

Eyes wild with shock, the girl stared at Marinette, who was crouched at her level. She didn't answer at first, but as the question registered, she slowly shook her head no. Her breath was heavy, like she was focused solely on controlling her rate of breathing. 

With only a single choke as warning, the girl began sobbing, and grappled Adrien's neck in a death-grip hug. With gentleness, Adrien hushed her, and patted her head in an attempt to soothe her. 

Sabine crouched down as well now, and held out a chocolate croissant, "There there," she said to the girl, "everything is alright now."

The girl peeked out at Sabine, but still held tightly onto Adrien. 

"My name is Sabine, what is your name?"

The girl sniffled once more, before answering, "Jaclyn."

Sabine smiled at her, slowly winning the girl over, "Jaclyn. What a lovely name. Tell me Jaclyn, do you like croissants?"

Jaclyn glanced down at the pastry in Sabine's hand, and looked up again to nod. 

"Would you like this one? It's chocolate."

Finally, she released Adrien in favor of the sweet. As Sabine comforted the child, Tom walked up behind her. 

"You all should go upstairs, I think." He told them, a subtle command, and one that Adrien and Marinette knew the reason for. 

The four of them, Marinette, Adrien, Jaclyn, and Sabine, made their way upstairs. Adrien could hear Tom as the group walked up the stairs.

"M. Agreste, I think it would be better if you and I stayed down here. Just in case." Tom said, Adrien could once again hear the subtle command in his voice. While he rarely made direct demands, any "suggestion" from a man of his stature was clearly meant to be followed. 

Adrien was just worried about how his father might react to that. 

After a second's hesitation, Gabriel responded calmly, "Yes...I suppose you're right."

Adrien breathed a small sigh of relief. When the small group reached the living space, Sabine shuffled the older two children up to Marinette's room. 

They were stopped as Jaclyn spoke, "Wait! Why do they have to go upstairs? I want them to be here too."

Sabine bit her lip, before leaning down and whispering in the girl's ear. Adrien and Marinette waited on the stairway to see what would happen. 

Jaclyn giggled, and pulled away from Sabine, "Ewww! Gross!"

Sabine laughed as well, "I know, isn't it!" she looked at the two of them as she spoke, gesturing with her eyes to _'get a move on.'_

They didn't need to be told twice, as they moved on up to the bedroom and blatantly ignored what Sabine might have told the little girl. 

Arriving on the scene, it turned out Ladybug and Chat were hardly needed this time around. The other three had been lucky enough to corner Pure Reign into an alleyway, where her ribbons had a much more limited range to them. 

Having their flanks protected by the brick walls, Marinette was able to swing her yo-yo around an overhead clothes wire, and around Pure Reign's ankle. 

Nino fended off the ribbons in front of them, Chloe and Marinette kept the makeshift pulley in place, and Alya and Adrien studied their enemy to try and find the akuma object. 

"There!" Alya pointed, "The necklace!"

Hanging in her face, Pure Reign wore a necklace which had previously been hidden by the dress. Agreeing with Alya that this was in fact their target, Adrien used his baton to perch just above the villain. He stretched himself across the small gap, feet and one of his hands pushing against the tight brick walls. 

Adrien reached down to pluck away the necklace, only to stop himself short. The necklace was a white rose, on a thin gold chain. 

That was Anne's necklace. 

The necklace his father had given her. 

The evilly cocky smirk returned to Pure Reign's face, as her ribbons wrapped around Adrien's waist and painfully planted him face down into the wet and dirty alleyway. The momentum upwards was enough to catch Ladybug and Queen Bee off guard. As they lost their balance, Pure Reign pushed herself up onto the roofs above. 

"Chat! Come on!" He heard Ladybug yell, but still Adrien chose to lay still in the mud. 

With a circle of his friend's around him, he was pulled to his feet. Each of them asked if he was alright, he assumed, that sort of information was irrelevant right then. 

Without waiting for anyone to stop speaking, Adrien spoke, almost to himself, "I know who she is."

"What? Speak up." Marinette asked. 

He brought his voice up a little louder, just enough to be heard this time, "Anne is Pure Reign."

"Oh." Marinette said, clarity eluding her for a moment. When it hit though...

It hit in full force.

Her eyes widened as she _realized_ , "Oh, _shit_."

Adrien nodded along, as Marinette began to piece it together aloud. 

"But if she's Pure Reign, an akuma, wouldn't she have to be upset to be akumatized? And how does she un-akumatize herself?!"

Nino spoke up, "Umm, aaaaaactually, if the person being akumatized is willing, they don't necessarily need to have any negative feelings."

He tapped his chin, processing the information they had along with what he knew from the ancient book, 

"And if that were the case, and she could communicate with Hawkmoth, she could essentially be akumatized whenever she wanted."

Adrien scanned his friends' faces, waiting for them to realize what he had already seen. 

What he now knew for fact. 

"But wait a second," Chloe said, "Why would Anne want to be akumatized? What would the point be?"

Adrien decided to fill in the final puzzle piece, the last piece of evidence they had forgotten. He grasped onto two different people's shoulders. He didn't know whose, as he looked each of his friends in the eyes, turning his head to make sure they understood the truth. 

"There is one person that Anne would do anything for. Someone she calls, _Dieu_."

Simultaneously, his friends' eyes lit up with shock and fear. The same truth he had come to know mere moments before, was reflected in their eyes. 

Fear, shock, and a disbelief that spat in the face of the truth, was mirrored at him from the circle of his teammates. 

Nino was the first and last to speak, before the would split up for the night. 

The only thing he could say was, 

" _Oh...well fuck_."

The others had no words of encouragement, nor of sympathy. No words seemed sufficient. Rather, Chloe wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He could feel her tremble, though he couldn't be sure that wasn't his own body trembling. 

Marinette, Alya, and Nino all followed suit, embracing their friend. 

A friend who still had a long journey ahead. 

Eventually, they were forced to split up. Detransformed, Adrien found a text from Nathalie. It stated that his father had left the Dupain-Cheng home, them having given God-only-knows-what as an excuse, but one that was apparently viable enough to work. Adrien, frankly, couldn't care what they told him. 

Marinette refused to let him go home alone. She gripped tightly onto his hand, as they walked down the appropriately waterlogged streets of Paris. The rain from Pure Reign still remained, no Lucky Charm to clean it up. 

Stepping through the great wooden doorway, Adrien looked around the mansion lobby. Marinette held onto his had still, and he took in the sight of his home. The place he had grown up. 

He took a deep breath, and noted the heavy dust in the air. Having lived in this place his entire life, the dust seemed a part of it. A part he hardly noticed anymore, like how one might stop noticing the railing on a ship, or the wiring of stage lights when they look at the entire stage. 

Everything in this building was eccentric, polished, and familiar. 

Too familiar, now. 

Adrien finally let his eyes settle on the large portrait. A depressing sight, no matter the day. He was clearly unhappy in the painting, and his father was as professionally stoic as ever. The two of them made for a melancholy duo. 

Without taking his gaze from the portrait, Adrien spoke, 

"I need to move out."

Comfortingly, a warm body wrapped itself around his own arm. A soft cheek rested on his shoulder. A slight dampness bled through his shirt, and he turned his body to embrace the girl next to him. She began sobbing into his chest. 

He just stared at his father, face painted high on the wall. An emotion he rarely felt began burning in his chest. 

Anger, began burning in his chest, as he stared down the oil paint portrait.

That painting needed to burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a part 2! I pinkie swear!


End file.
